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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed her confidence on Tuesday in the account provided by the United States that former Canadian Olympic athlete Ryan Wedding was arrested after voluntarily surrendering at the US embassy in the Mexican capital, and she again ruled out any Washington-led operation on Mexican territory.
"What the United States authority told the Mexican authority is that it was a voluntary surrender (...) We have no reason to doubt either the ambassador or what we were told here in Mexico," the president noted in her daily press conference.
Although the director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, referred to the existence of a bilateral operation, Sheinbaum pointed out that they "do not consider" that an intervention took place to arrest the former Canadian athlete accused of drug trafficking-related crimes, given that, she added, "they have to report what they do here in Mexico."
When asked about Patel's claims, she said she does not want to "get into the matter" to avoid it becoming a "controversy" between both countries, although she assured that her government always tells "the truth."
Furthermore, she stressed that both US authorities and the ambassador to the country, Ronald Johnson, conveyed to them that he surrendered voluntarily last Thursday, so they have no reason to doubt their version.
"The national security law clearly establishes that every US agent in Mexico must submit a report, and we are not aware that they have done anything other than what they permanently report to the Mexican authorities," she added.
Likewise, Sheinbaum again referred to a photo published by Wedding himself at the doors of the US embassy, an image that, she noted, has "no indication" of being generated through artificial intelligence.
Although the former Canadian athlete ultimately surrendered to the authorities, the president highlighted that Mexico's security forces were "looking for him."
Ryan Wedding faces charges of cocaine trafficking and murder in the United States, where he was one of the fugitives most wanted by the FBI.
In November 2025, US authorities increased the reward from 10 to 15 million dollars for information leading to the capture of Wedding, who represented Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City (Utah, United States) in the snowboarding event.
According to US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Wedding is the leader of a transnational criminal organization that traffics dozens of tons of cocaine each year into the United States and Canada, originating from Colombia and passing through Mexico.
[Publicidad]