Mexico’s Sheinbaum Weighs Legal Action Against Musk Over Cartel Smear
Mexico has found itself at the center of global scrutiny following a military operation on Sunday that killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho" — the longtime leader of the New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG) — triggering a wave of retaliatory violence across multiple regions.
"We are considering whether to pursue some kind of legal action. The lawyers are reviewing it. But what matters to me is what the people say, and the vast majority of the public recognizes the work of the armed forces and the work we are doing every day," Sheinbaum said during her daily press conference.
The controversy stems from remarks Musk posted on his social media platform X, where he claimed Sheinbaum was "just saying what her cartel bosses tell her to say" — a broadside triggered by the resurfacing of footage showing the president criticizing US operations targeting suspected drug-running vessels.
Rather than escalating rhetorically, Sheinbaum directed her response squarely at the Mexican public.
"What matters to us is the Mexican people — their opinion, their recognition, their criticism. Listening to them and always responding, especially to the most vulnerable," she said, pointedly addressing Musk.
The accusations arrive against a backdrop of long-running debate over Mexico's approach to organized crime. Since the Morena party came to power in 2018 under then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — widely known as AMLO — the government distanced itself from the militarized "war on drugs" doctrine championed by former President Felipe Calderón beginning in 2006. AMLO's governing philosophy, captured in the phrase "Hugs, not bullets," prioritized social intervention over armed confrontation — a stance critics and analysts argue enabled cartels to entrench and expand their power rather than stemming the tide of violence.
Sheinbaum's political opponents have since carried that criticism forward, repeatedly accusing her government of enabling cartel activity by failing to contain organized crime. Musk's remarks echoed that narrative, arriving just as El Mencho's nearly three-decade grip over one of the Western Hemisphere's most powerful criminal networks came to a violent end.
The weekend operation left 30 alleged cartel members dead, alongside 25 National Guard officers and one prison guard.
Sheinbaum dismissed the renewed accusations with visible contempt.
"This absurd claim of a narco-government — if it was absurd before, it is even more so now. It collapses under its own weight. They don't even know what to invent anymore. Honestly, it's almost laughable to read it," she added.
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