Who is Rubén Rocha, the governor of Sinaloa and historical ally of AMLO whom the US accuses of collaborating with “Los Chapitos”
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Drug trafficking is as soon as once more testing relations between the United States and Mexico.
The resolution of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern District of New York to accuse ten present and former Mexican officers of collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel – a corporation based by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and his companion Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada – has unleashed a storm south of the Rio Grande, because it reinforces the thesis maintained by the Donald Trump administration that its neighbor “is controlled by the cartels.”
Among these recognized by the US authorities are distinguished members of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), the social gathering based by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and to which the present president, Claudia Sheinbaum, belongs, corresponding to Senator Enrique Inzunza Cázarez and the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya.
However, media consideration has targeted on Rocha. The motive? His closeness to AMLO and the suspicions which have lengthy linked him to drug lords.
The governor has rejected the accusations towards him and has described them as a “slander” missing “truth and any foundation.”
According to US prosecutors, Rocha would have obtained assist from the Sinaloa Cartel to be elected, which might have included acts of stress towards his adversaries. This, in trade for as soon as in workplace permitting the group to function with out intervention from state authorities.
In her every day press convention referred to as “La mañanera”, President Sheinbaum identified this Thursday that “we are not going to cover anyone who has committed a crime. However, if there is no clear evidence, it is evident that the objective of these accusations by the (US) Department of Justice is political.”
Shinbaum emphasised the protection of Mexico’s sovereignty, noting that it was the first time that one thing like this had occurred: “It must be extremely clear: under no circumstances are we going to allow the interference or interference of a foreign government in decisions that concern exclusively the people of Mexico.”
Trade unionist, educational and politician
“Rocha is a historical figure of the Mexican left.” This is how the Mexican media “Milenio” described the governor, who was born on June 15, 1949 in the municipality of Badiraguato (Sinaloa), the identical space the place, years later, in 1957, “El Chapo” Guzmán was born. This coincidence has fueled suspicions about his alleged hyperlinks to drug trafficking.
The politician started his public profession from a really younger age. In 1968, at simply 20 years previous, he was elected secretary of the Federation of Socialist Peasant Students of Mexico; and by the starting of the Nineteen Eighties he led the Single Workers Union of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, the place he accomplished his coaching.
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He mixed his profession as an educator and commerce unionist with his first try to be elected as governor in 1986, the place he was championed by a leftist alliance made up of the Unified Socialist Party of Mexico (PSUM), the Mexican Workers Party (PMT), the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT) and Corriente Socialista. However, he didn’t get greater than 2% of the votes.
After his first failure in regional politics, Rocha targeted on the college discipline. Between 1989 and 1992 he was normal secretary of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS), of which he grew to become rector from 1993 to 1997.
In 1998, he returned to politics when AMLO invited him to be the customary bearer of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) for the state governorship, however he got here third in the elections.
Despite his closeness to the left, he collaborated as an advisor in the administrations of governors Jesús Alberto Aguilar Padilla (2005-2010) and Quirino Ordaz Coppel (2017-2021), each from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
In 2013, lengthy earlier than these scandals that now hang-out him, Rocha printed a novel titled “El disimulo: thus narco was born,” which tells the story of how organized crime emerged in Sinaloa, the American newspaper recalled. The New York Times.
In 2017, he joined Morena and in 2018 he was elected senator.
Image supply, EPA
Between suspicions and controversies
In 2021, Rocha ran for the governor of Sinaloa for the third time with the assist of Morena and was elected. This, regardless of the undeniable fact that that very same yr the newspaper Milenio printed Mexican intelligence reviews during which it was acknowledged that the veteran leftist politician had hyperlinks with the Sinaloa cartel.
His administration, nevertheless, has been surrounded by controversy, significantly over his dealing with of the downside of legal violence.
The governor has been a defender of the controversial coverage of “hugs, not bullets” with which AMLO needed to deal with crime.
“Security is a worrying topic for the governments of Mexico and even the world. We are followers of President López Obrador and our strategy is his,” the official declared to the British newspaper. The Independent in 2023.
“We need to give meaning to life to all the poor who live on the margins, not only to feed themselves, but to provide them with education, culture, sports and a way of living with dignity. People often act out of hunger, lack of culture, lack of attention from the authorities,” he defined.
And though he promised that those that dedicated crimes could be punished, his administration has been unable to cease the violence, particularly that which has been unleashed in Sinaloa after the seize of “El Mayo” Zambada in July 2024, an occasion that opened a battle between his followers and “Los Chapitos” (the sons of “Chapo” Guzmán).
The clashes have left 3,100 homicides and 3,000 individuals lacking, based on native media.
Last February, a bunch of attorneys requested the Mexican Prosecutor’s Office to analyze the governor for his inaction in the face of the violence disaster, reported the Mexican newspaper “El Universal.”
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However, it was with the seize of “El Mayo” that the actual issues for Rocha started.
The boss assured, in a letter, that he was led right into a entice by “Los Chapitos”, who known as him to a gathering the place, they promised him, the governor could be there, who by no means confirmed up. Instead, they kidnapped him and took him to the United States at hand him over to the judicial authorities of that nation, based on his story.
“I was not aware of that meeting. I was not aware nor did they invite me, nor did they have to,” the official acknowledged on that event.
AMLO got here out in protection of his ally.
“We have complete confidence in Maestro Rocha,” he declared in August 2024.
Sheinbaum spoke in related phrases, saying: “We believe the governor.”
Rocha, for his half, believes that the US prosecutors’ accusation towards him has two goals.
The first is to weaken the Mexican authorities. “This attack is not only on me: but on the movement of the Fourth Transformation, on its emblematic leaders, and on the Mexicans who represent that cause,” he acknowledged on his X account (former Twitter).
And second, “it is part of a perverse strategy to violate the constitutional order, specifically national sovereignty,” with a view to justify police and navy operations towards the cartels in Mexican territory.
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