Mexico extradites 29 alleged criminals to U.S.
Feb. 28, 2025
Mexico extradited 29 alleged drug traffickers to the United States yesterday. They include Rafael Caro Quintero, long sought in the killing of a U.S. narcotics agent, and two leaders of the hyper-violent Zetas cartel.
“The number and significance of the people sent to the United States at the same time made the event one of the most important efforts by Mexico in the modern history of the drug war to send traffickers to face charges in American federal courts,” reports the New York Times.
“To put this in perspective, Mexico extradited an average of 65 wanted criminals to the United States between 2019 and 2023,” reports InSight Crime. “In other words, the Mexican government sent in a single day nearly half of all the wanted suspects they typically send across the border during the course of an entire year.”
Ioan Grillo lauds Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s “daring and determination to push through such an operation. To secure some of the extraditions, including key figures such the eighties narco boss Caro Quintero and the Zeta leaders, Z-40 and Z-42, prosecutors would have to bulldoze over various injunctions (known in Mexico as “amparos.” … However, it’s hard for the Mexican opposition to condemn extraditions of such brutal capos, even if they are legally questionable.” (CrashOut)
The dramatic gesture by Sheinbaum is an apparent effort to head off crushing economic sanctions that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose. (Washington Post)
Trump has tied the punitive 25% tariffs to results on fentanyl trafficking and migration, without setting any specific targets, notes the Guardian.
Canada and Mexico sought to show the U.S. administration evidence of progress in curbing the flow of fentanyl opioids into the U.S., today, ahead of next week’s deadline for punishing 25% tariffs on their goods imports, reports Reuters.
Regional Relations
U.S. Trump administration officials are debating “whether to carry out military strikes against Mexican drug cartels or instead to collaborate with Mexican authorities to jointly dismantle criminal organizations,” reports the New York Times.
The changing U.S. stance on Russia has significant impact on Latin America, writes Catherine Osborn in the Latin America Brief. U.S. governments in recent years, both Trump and Biden, have been concerned about Russian influence in the region. “In 2022, most countries in the region voted in favor of a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But the fact that most did not sanction Russia or arm Ukraine became a point of tension with the United States.”
Trump’s embrace of the Monroe Doctrine has not sparked major pushback by governments wary of attracting his hire, but is unlikely to advance U.S. issues of concern like Chinese influence in Latin America, reports the Washington Post.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua announced it would withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council, following a UN report that urged the international community to address human rights violations by President Daniel Ortega's government, reports Reuters.
The UN report accuses Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who serves as co-president, of having "transformed the country into an authoritarian state where no independent institutions remain." (Reuters)
Migration
Lawyers for people from around the world deported this month from the U.S. to Panama say they have not been able to communicate with their clients since they were transferred to a remote jungle camp.
Argentina
Manuel García-Mansilla was sworn in to Argentina’s Supreme Court yesterday — he is one of two judges appointed by executive decree by President Javier Milei. (See yesterday’s post.) The other judge, Ariel Lijo will assume next week, pending a review by the Supreme Court of his decision to take a leave of absence from his federal judgeship post rather than resign. (Buenos Aires Herald)
The memecoin scandal involving Milei shows “how crypto and politics have increasingly blended to enrich the powerful and take from most everyone else,” reports the New York Times.
Brazil
First Capital Command (PCC), one of Brazil’s most powerful criminal organizations, with interests across Latin America including cocaine markets and illegal goldmines, has also “significantly expanded its operations into Australia,” reports the Guardian.
Oscar Season
The excitement on Brazilian streets over the Oscar nominations received by national film, “I’m Still Here,” is palpable — “a feeling of national pride more commonly reserved for the national soccer team. That is because, to many across this country of 200 million, Brazil’s first major Oscar would represent a meaningful validation of a culture that has long awaited its proper due,” writes Jack Nicas in the New York Times.
On the flip side, “Emilia Pérez,” the movie about a transgender Mexican cartel leader who reconciles with her past, enters the Academy Awards on Sunday with 13 nominations, the most of any film this year — but it has been an absolute flop in Mexico, where “it has been widely criticized for its depiction of the country, the minimization of the cartel violence that has ravaged so many and the few Mexicans involved in its production,” reports the New York Times.