The relation between U.S. ambassador Ken Salazar and Mexico has been strained throughout 2024, especially as cartel violence has reached a fever pitch leading to almost 10 thousand Mexicans being displaced. Back in September, then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed that the U.S. was partly to blame for the ongoing cartel turf wars in Sinaloa, saying the country played a role in the capture of drug lord "El Mayo" Zambada in late July, an operation that he labeled as "totally illegal."
Salazar responded days later, saying that "what is being seen in Sinaloa is not the fault of the United States," adding that the country cannot be held responsible for "the massacres that we see in different places." The country also denied playing a role in the incident. The back-and-forth resurfaced in late October, with Salazar rejecting claims that the U.S. had not been forthcoming with information about Zambada's arrest, offering a timeline of high-level communications between the two governments instead.
