By Cassandra Garrison
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said on Thursday that there is no pause in the strong relations between the Mexican government and the U.S. embassy in the country.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
U.S. is Mexico’s top trading partner, and both countries have a long history of cooperation on economic, security and anti-drug trafficking matters, which both countries have expressed hopes of continuing under President Claudia Sheinbaum’s new government.
KEY QUOTES
Speaking about the relationship between the U.S. embassy and the Mexican government, Salazar said at a press conference that “there is no pause and there has never really been a pause. The exchange we have is strong, deep and authentic.”
Regarding the arrest of drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in the U.S. this summer, the ambassador said the U.S. government “has cooperated since the day the detention took place, which was July 25, by providing the Mexican government with the information we had.”
CONTEXT
Back in August, then-Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the government had paused its relationship with the U.S. embassy in the country, after Salazar criticized a controversial judicial reform backed by Lopez Obrador and his Morena ruling party.
Zambada, co-founder of the notorious Sinaloa cartel, was taken into custody on July 25, dealing a significant blow to the drug trade.
His arrest — alongside that of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s sons — was a major coup for U.S. law enforcement, but has kindled fears of an intra-cartel war in Mexico, with violence escalating in the western state of Sinaloa.
WHAT’S NEXT
Zambada is due for his next court appearance on Friday. The situation in Sinaloa remains tense, with potential implications for both domestic security in Mexico and the international drug trade.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Kylie Madry and Jonathan Oatis)
