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The governor of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, who requested a leave of absence to face a drug trafficking accusation from the United States, asserted this Thursday that since the case emerged, he has been at his home in Culiacán, and denied versions that he was being sheltered in a military installation.
"From May 1st until today, I have remained, without moving, at my residence in the city of Culiacán. I am neither protected nor sheltered by members of any federal corporation," the politician, from the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena), stated in a post on his X account.
Thus, Rocha Moya spoke out after columns in two Mexican media outlets indicated that the politician was in a military installation following an operation by the Armed Forces to change his location.
This information was also denied by the federal Security Cabinet and the president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
The governor of Sinaloa, who has been away from office for 69 days to face the allegations from the United States, denounced a "heinous media onslaught of slander and imputations without any factual or legal basis," while reiterating his innocence in the face of the "false" accusations from the US Department of Justice.
"Today it is clear that this is an attack promoted by the far-right, with the intention of undermining national sovereignty and stigmatizing the most important transformation movement in favor of the poor on the continent," he added.
Hours earlier, Sheinbaum had already denied that Rocha Moya had protection from the Mexican Army, information she attributed to an attempt to "harm the government."
"We are not going to defend anyone as long as there is evidence," said the president in her daily press conference, in which she criticized the United States for using drug trafficking "many times" as a pretext to "have a situation of interference or weakening" in a country.
The US Department of Justice caused a political earthquake in Mexico in April by requesting the urgent arrest for extradition purposes of ten high-ranking Sinaloa officials, including the governor, for their alleged collaboration with Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, in exchange for bribes and political favors.
Two of the accused surrendered to US authorities, while the rest remain in the Latin American country to defend their innocence in a case that increased bilateral tensions with Washington.
The federal government emphasizes that, for the moment, it will not arrest the accused politicians, arguing that the United States has not sent the evidence to justify this measure.
[Publicidad]