See article: https://archive.ph/B0lHM
I post this article solely to point out that the saga of Rubén Rocha Moya is not over. I reported about Rocha Moya’s corruption nearly a year before a peep was heard about it in the Wall Street Journal (see my posting for September 4, 2024).
What is important to note from this article, is that President Sheinbaum has forced Rocha Moya out of office. By doing so, Sheinbaum has gone against against her own MORENA Party and her benefactor Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) who was a close associate of Rocha Moya.
Commentators say she is bending to the Trump administration after it indicted Rocha Moya for facilitating Sinaloa Cartel operations as governor of Sinaloa State. Currently, the Mexican government refuses to extradite Rocha Moya to the US claiming that the investigation into his alleged crimes is ongoing.
What is apparent from this episode is that Sheinbaum is attempting to placate the Trump administration while at the same time she is attempting to assert her independence as President against her credentials as a Mexican nationalist.
As governor of Sinaloa, it is almost certain that Rocha Moya had some kind of connection to the Sinaloa Cartel. Nonetheless, the evidence tying Rocha Moya to the kidnapping of El Mayo Zambada and the death of Rocha Moya’s political rival, Héctor Cuén, during the kidnapping is circumstantial and relies on the testimony of El Mayo. It is clear that when El Mayo was abducted, he was betrayed under false pretenses. El Mayo claims that he believed he was going to a meeting in order to broker a deal between Rocha Moya and Cuén. The question is whether or not one believes the testimony of El Mayo.
As I stated in my initial article, the waters are muddy. The evidence against Rocha Moya is circumstantial. The US smells blood, but has yet to provide “bullet proof” evidence to convict Rocha Moya. Sheinbaum continues to placate but stall in order to keep the US at bay. Taking from history the results of what has transpired in other Mexican scandals where the whisper of narcotics fills the air (such as the assassination of Donaldo Colosio – see: Narcostates), the true story regarding Rocha Moya and his involvement in El Mayo’s kidnapping will never see the light of day.
