Mexico says there's no agreement with DEA for new border enforcement
collaboration
[August 20, 2025]
By MARÍA VERZA
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's president denied on Tuesday that her
administration had an agreement with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, a day after the U.S. agency announced “a major new
initiative” to collaborate in the fight against drug cartels.
President Claudia Sheinbaum was referring to “Project Portero,” an
effort announced Monday by the DEA, which called it a "flagship
operation” against smuggling routes that move drugs, guns and money
across the border.
“The DEA put out a statement yesterday saying that there is an agreement
with the Mexican government for an operation called Portero,” Sheinbaum
said during her morning news briefing.
“There is no agreement with the DEA," she stressed. "The DEA puts out
this statement, based on what we don’t know. We have not reached any
agreement, none of the security institutions (have) with the DEA.”
Sheinbaum said the only thing that was happening was a workshop in Texas
attended by four members of Mexico’s police force.
Later, without addressing Sheinbaum’s criticism, the DEA said
coordination with its Mexican counterparts on the training was “a
significant step forward in advancing and strengthening law enforcement
and intelligence sharing with partners regarding an issue that has
positive implications on both sides of the border.”
Monday's DEA statement mentioned that workshop, saying it had brought
Mexican investigators to one of its intelligence centers to train with
U.S. prosecutors, law enforcement, defense officials and members of the
intelligence community.
Mexico's visibly annoyed president made her comments just days after
generally positive exchanges between the two governments following
another extension to ward off threatened U.S. tariffs and another
shipment of 26 drug cartel figures to the United States from Mexico.
Mexico had seemed to be repairing the security relationship with the
U.S. after six years of tension under Sheinbaum's predecessor, Andrés
Manuel López Obrador, who had reined in DEA agents operating in Mexico
and accused the agency of wholesale fabrication when it arrested
Mexico's former defense secretary.
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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum talks to reporters during a
joint press conference, in Calakmul, Campeche state, Mexico, Friday,
Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)
Sheinbaum's administration had taken a more aggressive stance toward
pursuing Mexico's drug cartels and sent dozens of cartel figures
sought by prosecutors to the U.S.
Sheinbaum did say that members of her administration had been
working for months with U.S. counterparts on a broader security
agreement that was practically finished. She said that agreement was
based on four principles her administration has stressed for months:
sovereignty, mutual trust, territorial respect and coordination
without subordination.
The thing that seemed to have her bristling Tuesday was the DEA
sending out a statement without proper coordination.
Sheinbaum said she asked the DEA to respect Mexico, to follow
agreed-upon protocols for such announcements, and emphasized that
Mexico only signs agreements with the U.S. government, not with
individual agencies.
The DEA statement included a comment from agency administrator Terry
Cole, who was recently tapped to lead the Trump administration
takeover of the Washington D.C. police.
“Project Portero and this new training program show how we will
fight — by planning and operating side by side with our Mexican
partners, and by bringing the full strength of the U.S. government
to bear,” Cole said in the Monday statement.
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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington
contributed to this report.
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