MEXICO CITY — Two members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s party in northwestern Sinaloa state said they would temporarily step down from their posts after the United States charged them and eight other officials with drug trafficking in a bombshell indictment that has shaken the political establishment.
In a short video announcement posted at midnight Friday, Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, the highest-ranking official named in the indictment, denied accusations that he protected the powerful Sinaloa cartel and helped it smuggle drugs into the U.S. in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.
“My conscience is clear,” he said. “To my people and to my family, I can look you in the eye because I have never betrayed you, and I never will.”
But he said he would take a temporary leave of absence to defend himself against what he called the “false and malicious” allegations and cooperate with the Mexican government’s investigation to determine whether he should be arrested or extradited to the U.S.
Juan de Dios Gámez Mendívil, mayor of the Sinaloa state capital Culiacán, also said he would step down and the city’s comptroller was appointed interim mayor on Saturday. Gámez Mendívil has denied the charges against himself.
Sheinbaum, who has struggled to strike a balancebetween the interests of her progressive Morena party and pressure from President Trump to step up the fight against cartels, says she hasn’t seen credible evidence against Rocha Moya but vowed that Mexican authorities would investigate the cases and gather their own information.
She declared that the officials would be tried in Mexico, not the U.S., if there is credible evidence against them.
“We will never subordinate ourselves because this is a matter of the dignity of the Mexican people,” she said Friday.
Pending investigation, the Mexican attorney general’s office said it would not arrest Rocha Moya or the other indicted officials, as requested by the U.S.
Rocha Moya, a staunch ally of Sheinbaum’s mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has insisted the indictment against him and other members of the Morena party amount to an attack on the dominant left-leaning political movement.
“I will not allow myself to be used to harm the movement to which I belong — one that has improved the lives of millions of Mexican men and women,” he said in the video.
As governor, Rocha Moya has immunity from criminal prosecution. Mexico’s Congress must first impeach him if he is to face charges.
The indictment of Rocha Moya, who was born in the same town as the notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo,” was notable because the governor was embroiled in a scandal in 2024 involving the Sinaloa cartel.
His name was published in a letter written by a then-Sinaloa cartel capo who was kidnapped by leaders of a rival faction and handed off to law enforcement in the U.S. In the letter, the capo said that when he was kidnapped he was on his way to meet with Rocha Moya.
The post Mexican governor and mayor indicted by U.S. on drug trafficking charges step down appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
