When the United States and its allies expelled scores of Russian diplomats and spies in recent years over the invasion of Ukraine and a poisoning in Britain, they left some of Russia’s most seasoned intelligence agents with nowhere to go.
Too many eyes were on them in European countries and the United States, where spy agencies and surveillance systems were strong.
But Mexico provided a ripe opportunity.
American officials say that many of those senior Russian spies were relocated to Mexico to take advantage of the country’s proximity to the United States.
Some of the Biden administration’s top diplomats voiced their concerns to Mexican officials about Russia’s espionage efforts in the country, only to have their warnings shrugged away, current and former officials told The New York Times. The C.I.A. even compiled a list of more than two dozen Russian spies posing as diplomats, but the Mexican government refused to kick them out of the country, five current and former American officials said.
Current and former U.S. officials told The Times that the Mexican government repeatedly thwarted efforts to crack down on Russian espionage activities within the country.
Mexico’s proximity to the U.S. and huge tourism industry makes it useful for Russian spies.
Millions of American tourists travel to Mexico every year. U.S. officials worry that among those vacationers are spies working for Moscow, whom Russia flies down from the United States to exchange intelligence they have gathered or to issue marching orders for future operations.
Because the Mexican government’s intelligence arms are focused on domestic threats, like drug cartels, American officials say Russia’s intelligence services can act with impunity in the country.
“If you are going to handle and recruit spies, proximity is key and that’s what Mexico offers,” said Duyane Norman, the C.I.A.’s chief of operations in Latin America until he retired in 2019. “Russia can act with greater impunity in Mexico. There are not as many eyes on them as in the U.S. or Canada.”
Russia has long used Mexico as a spying base. But Moscow has intensified those efforts in recent years.
During the Cold War, Mexico was called the “Vienna of Latin America,” a place where Russia’s intelligence services worked to obtain Washington’s secrets.
The Russia-Mexico connection extends to before the Cold War, too: Assassins sent by Joseph Stalin killed the Soviet politician Leon Trotsky while he sought refuge in Mexico City, where he had become close friends with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
But since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin’s espionage efforts have intensified. Russia needs more intelligence about how the United States supports Ukraine in the war and other valuable information that could be used to undermine Washington domestically and internationally, U.S. officials say.
The scope of Russia’s espionage efforts in the Latin American country has grown so significantly that the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City just appointed its first official “Russia watcher” in August. The position will monitor Russian activities in Mexico, U.S. officials said.
The Mexican government is currently led by the Morena party, which has many leftist members who, critics say, harbor pro-Russia leanings and a deep distrust of the United States. That, American officials say, may be one of the reasons the Mexican government is unwilling to expel the Russian spies the C.I.A. has identified.
The Morena party declined to comment.
Mexican officials brushed off U.S. concerns over Russia as paranoia.
When U.S. officials tried to follow up on a list of identified Russian spies that it had sent, Mexican officials told them that they had never received it. The former Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his foreign minister also brushed off some of the Biden administration’s most senior officials when they brought their concerns, U.S. officials said.
“The Mexican government did help, but they could have done a lot more,” said Juan Gonzalez, the director for Western Hemisphere affairs on the National Security Council during the Biden administration. “We gave them names of Russian spies who were posing as diplomats at the embassy in Mexico City. These were seasoned spies, who had been on sophisticated operations across Europe.”
Maria Abi-Habib is an investigative correspondent reporting on Latin America and is based in Mexico City.
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