Mexico calls for DEA internal probe of 'fabricated' case against minister

Mexico said on Friday the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration should carry out an internal investigation into the conduct of its case against a former defense minister, in a new test of bilateral ties with U.S. President Joe Biden's government. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the investigation should look into who within the DEA "fabricated" the case against former minister Salvador Cienfuegos, days after Mexico's attorney general decided to drop charges.

Mexico said on Friday the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration should carry out an internal investigation into the conduct of its case against a former defense minister, in a new test of bilateral ties with U.S. President Joe Biden's government.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the investigation should look into who within the DEA "fabricated" the case against former minister Salvador Cienfuegos, days after Mexico's attorney general decided to drop charges. "I am not going to go to any international body, but I respectfully believe that agency should do an internal investigation and clarify what happened, who made the file, who gave the order to apply it," said Lopez Obrador, referring to the DEA, during a regular news conference.

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The U.S. arrest and subsequent release of Cienfuegos put severe strain on bilateral security cooperation. Mexico retaliated with restrictions on DEA intelligence gathering. Lopez Obrador also angered Washington by publishing a large dossier from the case that the United States had provided in confidence. The ongoing fallout risks further souring ties just as Biden takes over from Donald Trump, with whom the Mexican president had struck an unlikely friendship.

Teneo, a political risk consultancy, said Lopez Obrador's recent moves seemed "deliberately provocative" to the new U.S. administration. His "contrarian attitude is largely due to his drive to acquire leverage ahead of what he anticipates will be a more complex period in bilateral relations," Teneo's Nicholas Watson said in a note.

Under Trump, in return for a hardline stance on immigration, Lopez Obrador received little high-level U.S. pressure over his push for more state control in the energy sector. "INCONSISTENCIES"

Cienfuegos, a member of former President Enrique Pena Nieto's government, was arrested in October at Los Angeles international airport and accused by U.S. prosecutors of collaborating with a splinter of a powerful drug cartel. He returned to Mexico in November after a federal judge granted a U.S. government request to drop charges against him and turn the investigation over to Mexico, citing diplomatic sensitivities.

The Mexican attorney general's office said earlier in January the U.S. case was not strong enough to warrant charges against Cienfuegos, a decision Lopez Obrador publicly backed. Lopez Obrador said the hundreds of pages of evidence the DEA provided, which he ordered to be shared publicly online, was riddled with inconsistencies.

"There is no way that we are going to invent crimes," said Lopez Obrador. "We have said that if the DEA has additional information to present it." The U.S. embassy in Mexico City referred a request for comment to the Department of Justice. A spokesman for the DEA, a division of Justice, did not immediately respond.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)