Strong position of the president of Mexico towards the US: “Subordination and intervention, no”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum holds a press conference in Mexico City on January 2, 2026. PHOTO: Luis Barron/Eyepix Group/Shutterstock Editorial/Profimedia
The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, reiterated on Monday her country's opposition to the capture of the President of Venezuela by Washington and to any kind of US intervention in Mexico, writes Reuters.
“We categorically reject interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” Sheinbaum said, reiterating statements made Saturday after U.S. forces launched an attack on Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro.
The president added that Mexico is a sovereign country and cooperates with the US on drug trafficking and security, as her US counterpart Donald Trump suggested over the weekend military action in Mexico to fight drug cartels.
“It is necessary to reaffirm that in Mexico the people rule and that we are a free and sovereign country – cooperation, yes; subordination and intervention, no,” Sheinbaum said.
Sheinbaum's statements, which he read at the start of his news conference on Monday, are consistent with his government's position since taking office in 2024, as well as with the Mexican constitution, which stipulates non-intervention as the guiding principle of the country's foreign policy.
Trump has long suggested that military action may be needed to combat drug cartels operating in Mexico, and told reporters over the weekend that the U.S. “is going to have to do something” in Mexico about drugs.
Taking questions from reporters afterward, Sheinbaum said Monday that she did not consider a hypothetical U.S. intervention in Mexico likely, even though, she added, Trump had insisted on it during phone calls between the two leaders.
“I don't believe in an invasion; I don't even think it's something they (the Americans, no) take very seriously,” Sheinbaum said. “On several occasions, he insisted that the US military be allowed to enter Mexico. We very firmly said no – firstly because we defend our sovereignty and secondly because it is not necessary,” she added.
Shortly after returning to the White House last year, the Trump administration designated Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and other drug gangs as terrorist organizations, resuming a plan it abandoned in 2019 at the request of then-Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
In August, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration in Washington could use the military to go after drug cartels.
