State Department reviewing all Mexican consulates in US as tensions grow
The State Department is initiating a evaluate of all 53 Mexican consulates working in the United States, a US official instructed CBS News on Thursday, in a transfer that would lead Secretary of State Marco Rubio to think about ordering the closure of some diplomatic places of work.
The evaluate comes as bilateral tensions construct over safety cooperation and cartel violence, and it follows the deaths of two American CIA officers after a counter-narcotics operation in northern Mexico final month.
A State Department official mentioned the evaluate is a part of a broader effort to align US overseas coverage with the Trump administration’s priorities.
Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for world public affairs, mentioned the “Department of State is constantly reviewing all aspects of American foreign relations to ensure they are in line with the President’s America First foreign policy agenda and advance American interests.”
Mexico maintains the biggest overseas consular community in the United States, with places of work that present documentation and authorized assist to thousands and thousands of Mexican residents dwelling throughout the nation. Most are concentrated in border states and cities with giant Mexican American populations, together with California, Texas and Arizona.
In current years, US consulate closures have often mirrored rising tensions with rival international locations reasonably than routine diplomatic adjustments. In 2020, as relations between Washington and Beijing worsened, the Trump administration ordered China’s consulate in Houston to closeciting considerations over espionage and mental property theft. In 2017, the US ordered Russia to shut its consulate in San Franciscotogether with diplomatic amenities in Washington and New York, in response to Moscow expelling American diplomats.
Tensions between the US and Mexico spiked final month following the deaths of two American officers — later confirmed by CBS News to have been working for the CIA — who died alongside two Mexican investigators after their automobile crashed in a distant mountain area the place authorities have been concentrating on suspected drug laboratories.
US Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson introduced the deaths of two embassy employees members in a submit on X on April 19.
The operation rapidly stoked political controversy, after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said The American officers might not have had authorization from the federal authorities to function in the nation and publicly demanded explanations from the Trump administration.
The dispute has widened in recent daysas the US introduced drug trafficking and weapons expenses in opposition to prime Mexican political figures and issued a number of extradition requests, together with one for Sinaloa Governor Ruben Rocha Moya.
Sheinbaum mentioned this week that Mexico’s Foreign Ministry despatched a diplomatic observe to Washington requesting proof from the US Justice Department relating to the allegations in opposition to Rocha and different senior officers, saying Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office would examine if credible proof was offered.
Rocha denied the accusations, calling them false, and mentioned he would temporarily leave office to deal with his protection and cooperate with Mexican authorities as the case proceeds.
The US Embassy in Mexico later said combating corruption and transnational organized crime stays a shared precedence for each governments. While declining to touch upon the particular allegations, the embassy mentioned corruption that allows organized crime “will be investigated and prosecuted wherever US jurisdiction applies.”
The diplomatic strife comes amid an expanded CIA counternarcotics push beneath Director John Ratcliffe, who has sought to advance a key Trump administration precedence by deepening intelligence-sharing and coaching with Mexican antidrug items and has included surveillance drone flights over Mexico concentrating on cartel operations.
The rising US position has fueled debate in Mexico over its sovereignty and safety cooperation with the Trump administration, particularly as President Trump has repeatedly floated taking unilateral navy motion in opposition to cartels.
The CIA declined to remark.
CBS News has reached out to the Mexican embassy in Washington, DC, for remark.