The arrest of Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro has had consequences that have rippled across the region.
With Maduro now facing trial in U.S. courts, countries with long histories of close ties to Venezuela, including Mexico, have drawn the attention of U.S. prosecutors. A new report by the Financial Times revealed that the indictment against Maduro contains dozens of references to Mexico, including cases in which cartels allegedly partnered with Venezuelan officials to traffic cocaine or launder drug proceeds, as well as serious allegations that Caracas helped fund the unsuccessful 2006 presidential campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“The mentions of Mexico are very uncomfortable and put Mexico in an even more vulnerable position,” Carlos Ramírez of the consultancy Integralia in Mexico City told the outlet. “Now everything will be used against us.”
Before being elected president and governing Mexico from 2018 to 2024, López Obrador ran twice for the office, first in 2006 and again in 2012, with U.S. court records now alleging that those efforts were backed by Venezuela’s then-president Hugo Chávez.
“They were flying bulk cash in suitcases to give to the López Obrador campaign,” said one former senior official.
Despite the recent revelations suggesting that Chávez’s government funded López Obrador’s first presidential run, the former Mexican president has for years denied receiving money either from drug cartels or from Venezuela.
That version was echoed last month by Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández, who said in an episode of her podcast Narcosistema that, according to sources consulted by her team, the Chávez government allegedly funneled proceeds from drug trafficking to support left-wing political projects across Latin America, including López Obrador’s.
According to her account, that support started as early as 2004 and extended across multiple electoral cycles, including those in 2006, 2012 and 2018.
This is not the first time López Obrador has been linked to drug trafficking, nor has he been the only member of the Morena party accused of working alongside criminal groups. According to analysts such as Mónica Serrano, a professor at the Colegio de México, a university in Mexico City, the United States could pressure Mexico in the near future to hand over senior Morena figures accused of criminal ties so they can face corruption charges on U.S. soil.
“Unfortunately, the evidence of links between politicians close to Morena and drug trafficking is substantial,” Serrano said.
Mexico’s current president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has repeatedly denied any ties between Morena politicians and drug trafficking organizations. But analysts believe Trump could lose patience and escalate pressure the way he did in Venezuela.
“She has bet on being able to be a master manipulator of Trump by talking to him nicely, but that only goes so far,” Luis Rubio, chair of the think tank México Evalúa, told the Financial Times. “With the perception that the Venezuela operation was a success, I think Trump is emboldened.”
Similarly, former deputy foreign minister Andrés Rozental told the outlet that if Sheinbaum’s administration fails to deliver results against organized crime, such as seizing clandestine labs or taking action against senior officials collaborating with cartels, “I do think he will lose patience and send in the drones.”
Originally published on Latin Times
