President Claudia Sheinbaum is facing questions that could define her presidency and test her party’s legacy over accusations of corruption, luxury trips and cartel ties against high-profile figures in her party.
How far will she go to confront powerful figures within the leftist movement that brought her to power? And will a movement built on promises to end political privilege, corruption and influence peddling hold its own members to those same standards?
Publicly, Ms. Sheinbaum has made her position clear.
“Let the law be upheld, let law enforcement institutions do their work, let us not allow foreign interference in decisions that belong solely to Mexicans, and let us act with integrity, honesty and decency,” she said in August at a news conference. That, she said, will “distinguish us from the corruption and privilege of the past.”
Still, Ms. Sheinbaum faces what some see as a growing dilemma. It is embodied by Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, a well-known figure in her party and a son of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Mr. López Beltrán has not been charged with any crime but has been repeatedly accused of corruption.
He occupies an unusual place in Mexican politics: He is not simply the son of a former president but also someone many see as the heir to the man who transformed the country and its political landscape. His father founded the left-wing movement, Morena, now Mexicos’s ruling party, on the promise to dismantle privilege, root out corruption and break the cozy ties between political and business elites that he said had enriched a few at the expense of millions.
Last month, Mr. López Beltrán and one of his brothers appeared on the front page of a major national newspaper. Photos showed them dining at a high-end restaurant with top business executives and a former top aide to their father.
The images quickly revived public scrutiny of Mr. López Beltrán’s taste for expensive restaurants, hotels and travel. But the five-hour dinner also made news because it came just as he faced a cascade of corruption accusations.
Critics and opposition politicians have accused him of using his influence to steer contracts to his inner circle, and media investigations and leaked files have linked his close associates to the deals. References to Mr. López Beltrán also appeared in case files from Mexico’s attorney general’s office regarding a giant fuel-smuggling scheme.
And last month, Mr. López Beltrán, 40, revealed that the United States had revoked his visa, as it has done with other Mexican politicians accused of corruption. American officials have declined to comment on the visa revocation.
Mr. López Beltrán has vehemently denied corruption accusations. In response to his visa revocation, he published an angry letter to President Trump, calling the decision “a crude and perverse dirty trick” intended to punish Morena, his party, for refusing to submit to Washington’s “authoritarian, divisive ambitions.”
Two U.S. law enforcement agencies are looking into accusations of Mr. López Beltrán’s supposed ties to organized crime and fuel smuggling, but they have not launched formal investigations, according to five people with direct knowledge of the agencies’ inquiries who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Mr. López Beltrán has also reached out to U.S. law enforcement officials via intermediaries multiple times this year, but the two sides have not had formal talks, according to three people familiar with the entreaties.
The string of controversies surrounding Mr. López Beltrán pose a larger predicament for Ms. Sheinbaum.
“He puts Sheinbaum’s conduct and her politics to the test,” said Jesús Silva-Herzog Márquez, a political analyst. At stake, he said, is Morena’s core identity. “The idea that they are morally regenerating the country — the honest ones who are going to put an end to this system of corruption — is now being called into question,” Mr. Silva-Herzog said.
Mr. López Beltrán has long operated at the heart of the governing party, helping organize get-out-the-vote efforts in Mexico City during his father’s 2018 presidential campaign. He joined the party leadership as its secretary of organization in 2024, once Ms. Sheinbaum’s presidency started.
In this role, he spearheaded a campaign that almost quintupled Morena’s official membership to over 11 million — although he then faced scrutiny after the electoral authorities nullified or removed more than two million registrants for widespread anomalies, including duplicates and the registration of 91,000 deceased individuals.
In May, Mr. López Beltrán stepped down from the party leadership and announced his intention to run for Congress representing Tabasco, his father’s home state. He has since been campaigning ahead of the 2027 elections.
The campaign has been dogged by scandal. Investigative outlets and leaked files have linked a network of his close associates — most notably, his longtime friend Jorge Amílcar Olán, a businessman — to lucrative government contracts.
References suggesting Mr. López Beltrán’s involvement in a fuel-smuggling scheme also appeared in case files from Mexico’s attorney general’s office. Mexican prosecutors allege that corrupt customs and naval officials helped import U.S. diesel disguised as oil additives, evading billions in Mexican taxes.
A cooperating witness said the 2025 seizure of smuggled diesel was the result of a political clash between Mexico’s top security official and “the president’s son,” according to federal case files published in Mexican media outlets and reviewed by The New York Times. Defense lawyers for prosecuted naval officers told Mexican reporters that “the president’s son” was a reference to Mr. López Beltrán.
Mr. López Beltrán did not respond to requests for comment.
In August, Mexican prosecutors said these mentions alone did not constitute sufficient evidence to open an investigation into him. “We don’t have any evidence linking Andrés Manuel López Beltrán to any crime, none,” Ms. Sheinbaum said last month.
When his visa was revoked, some Morena members rushed to Mr. López Beltrán’s defense, framing the move as both external interference and part of a campaign against him by party insiders and outside critics.
“The shadow of revenge hangs over him, coming from opposition political sectors that feel aggrieved or impacted by his father’s public policies,” Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s leader in Congress, said in an interview.
Ms. Sheinbaum is also navigating a delicate relationship with Washington. She has deepened security cooperation while firmly rejecting threats of unilateral U.S. military action against cartels. Her defense of Mexican sovereignty enjoys broad support at home.
But Washington is also pressing her government to act against Mexican officials accused of corruption or criminal ties, sharpening scrutiny of how she handles powerful figures within her own movement.
Ms. Sheinbaum’s supporters point to evidence that her government has acted on its promise to break with corruption.
Under her watch, security forces have arrested more than 100 officials, including mayors, municipal police chiefs and regional politicians, many of them charged with facilitating cartel operations or institutional corruption. The list includes members of her own party.
But critics say that those vows hit a hard limit when accusations reach the upper ranks of the governing party.
This spring, U.S. prosecutors indicted 10 current and former Mexican officials, including a sitting governor, Rubén Rocha Moya, and a senator, Enrique Inzunza, both prominent Morena members. Prosecutors accused them of a yearslong scheme to protect and help the Sinaloa Cartel and sought their arrest for a subsequent extradition.
In response, Mexico’s attorney general’s office opened its own investigation, but Ms. Sheinbaum maintained that the United States had not provided enough evidence against the accused to detain them.
Another prominent party figure caught in scandal is Adán Augusto López Hernández. As governor of Tabasco state, he appointed a security chief who was arrested last year and accused of leading a criminal organization involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. Mr. López Hernández has not been accused of any crimes.
Still, some analysts say that Ms. Sheinbaum has successfully sidelined some of her party’s more problematic figures without causing an internal rupture.
Mr. López Beltrán left his party post, Mr. Rocha Moya took an indefinite leave of absence, Mr. Inzunza departed Morena and Mr. López Hernández stepped down as the party’s Senate leader.
Ms. Sheinbaum’s reluctance to publicly break with “undesirable” figures within her party — including Mr. Lopez Beltrán — may nevertheless hurt her credibility, said Vanessa Romero Rocha, a political analyst, even if her decisions are meant to protect her predecessor’s legacy and preserve party unity.
There may also be a more pragmatic goal: Mr. López Beltrán inevitably represents Mr. López Obrador, said Viri Ríos, another political analyst.
“And the single biggest vote mobilizer in this country,” she said, “is López Obrador.”
Alan Feuer and Miriam Castillo contributed reporting.
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