The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, addresses supporters at the Zócalo in Mexico City, December 6, 2025, to celebrate seven years of the Fourth Transformation government. Photo: Presidency of Mexico.
By Nancy Flores – May 30, 2026
With the objectives of winning votes for the upcoming United States midterm elections—as the Republicans face widespread popular disapproval with five months until the November elections—the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, along with Mexican business owners and media owners, are leading a kind of conspiracy to undermine the authority of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and nullify the popular support she enjoys, the Fourth Transformation (4T) political project she represents, and the governing National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party. They aim to illegally influence the 2027 Mexican electoral process, in which the Chamber of Deputies and state and municipal governments will be elected. Ultimately, they hope to appropriate Mexico’s resources, such as oil reserves, rare earths, lithium, cross-border water, and even beaches.
This offensive deployed by the national and international right is one of the most serious in Mexico’s contemporary history, even surpassing the pressure faced by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador during his term. This conspiracy includes strategies to destabilize Mexico across the political, economic, and social spheres. It does not only use black propaganda, dissemination of lies, disinformation, and fake news—both in the media corporations involved in the plot and on social media—but also includes phases of a soft coup and elements of “low-intensity warfare.”
The main media campaign, although not the only one, aims to disseminate the idea that the governing party (MORENA) and its leaders lack legitimacy because they are allies of “narco-terrorism.” Although it is often presented as a “journalistic revelation,” this serious accusation is not presented with evidence. Rather, it is based on the repetition of the message in all possible spaces until, through this repetition, it is deemed valid in collective memory. This phase did not begin in the current presidency, but started years earlier with the social media campaign of #narcopresident, #narcoparty, #narcocandidate, originating from a DEA leak to international media that has an agreement with the US agency. It should be emphasized that this has been tested not only in Mexico, but also in Venezuela and Colombia.
Domestically, this propaganda aims to reduce votes for MORENA, the country’s main political force. Above all, it aims to demoralize the people and take away their hope for a political alternative that confronts the neoliberal capitalist economic model. Therefore, the orchestrated attacks cannot focus on the public welfare policies, such as pensions for the elderly, student scholarships, and support for people with disabilities, nor on the state of social rights—health, education, housing, minimum wage, or democratic rights. However, in the latter case, unsuccessful attempts were made through campaigns falsely claiming limitations on freedom of expression, dictatorship, an authoritarian drift, and similar accusations.
From the same propaganda based on the narrative of “narco-government,” other narratives emerge: widespread stigmatization of MORENA members and supporters; media exacerbation of violent events and crimes; glorification of violence; and campaigns to counteract positive results in public policies, security, and peace, particularly regarding intentional homicides, disappearances, and femicides.
This propaganda offensive arises not only from the lies spread by media, analysts, commentators, intellectuals linked to the corporate right, “journalists,” YouTubers, and influencers, but also from the US government itself.
In addition to the clandestine work of agencies like the DEA and the CIA, US President Donald Trump contributes to it himself. With statements like the one he made on May 6 regarding how his operations against maritime drug trafficking have reduced this crime by 97% and that his government had already begun the land phase, he threatened to carry out military operations in Mexico, stating if the authorities “are not going to do the job, we will.”
However, the United States’ campaign to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations is not aimed at combating this crime but rather at illegally applying its extraterritorial laws worldwide, thereby appropriating the resources of other countries. An example of the above is what happened with Venezuela, as well as what the US government does on its own territory, where it makes deals with “narco-terrorism.”
The US authorities regularly make agreements with drug-trafficking leaders and politicians involved in the illegal drug trade. This happened with the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was directly pardoned by Trump. Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and the Los Chapitos faction [of the Sinaloa cartel]: Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán López made a deal with the Trump administration. Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, the former leader of the Gulf Cartel, cooperated with US authorities and obtained special privileges, even reducing his sentence. This also occurred with Reynaldo Zambada García, aka El Rey Zambada, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and brother of El Mayo Zambada.
In addition to demoralizing the people and the social base supporting 4T, the propaganda, disinformation, and fear associated with the narco-government campaign and the possibility of a US military intervention also aim to encourage capital flight and distrust in internal and external investments to artificially induce an internal crisis. At the same time, the large corporations remaining in the country are being encouraged to refuse to pay taxes, thereby strangling public finances.
Other actors in the plan
Several actors and groups are involved in this conspiracy for the US government and its DEA and CIA agencies to increase their interventionist offensive in Mexico. In addition to Ambassador Ronald Johnson, Mexican business owners and media owners; national and international right-wing groups; opposition parties such as National Action Party (PAN), Institutionalized Revolutionary Party (PRI), and Citizen Movement (MC); some leaders from the Green Party [MORENA’s coalition partner in government]; civil associations; law firms; bankers; analysts; commentators; intellectuals; and even “journalists” actively participate in the plot.
To this end, the Mexicans involved in the operation—from the business, media, and political spheres—have participated in meetings, lunches, and dinners directly convened by Ambassador Ron Johnson, staff from the United States Embassy, and politicians and business owners linked to President Trump. In those meetings, they have agreed on strategies to undermine President Claudia Sheinbaum’s authority, win votes for the upcoming US midterm elections in November, and illegally influence the Mexican electoral process of 2027.
As part of these approaches, opposition governments, such as the PAN governor of Chihuahua, Maru Campos, have opened their doors to the Central Intelligence Agency. Due to this, CIA agents were conducting field operations in Mexico, violating national sovereignty and the Constitution, amounting to treason. The risk is enormous, as the CIA has been involved in coups in Latin America and in operations like Iran-Contra.
Similarly, some opposition politicians have traveled to the US, apparently to complain about MORENA and the government. However, in reality, they receive “advice” for the coup plot.
Moreover, commentators, intellectuals, analysts, and members of civil associations receive funding from US agencies to increase the reach of black propaganda and dirty media war campaigns. This also happened during AMLO’s presidency with Claudio X González’s organizations, such as Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity and the National Strategic Litigation Council. Some organizations are capitalized on by the far-right Atlas Network, as has happened in the past with the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness and Mexico Evalúa.
When asked by Contralínea about this offensive during her press conference on May 26, President Sheinbaum explained that, “indeed, there is a link between international organizations or organizations from other countries and the Mexican right.” She revealed that these are far-right groups based in Argentina, Spain, and the United States, as well as other countries, that operate in this way to affect progressive governments.
The Mexican right, she added, is mainly associated with right-wing organizations in the United States “to attack the government of Mexico and the people of Mexico from there. That is what is happening. That is why this offensive on social media, this offensive in the media, is being conducted.”
Sheinbaum explained that, in response, her government “continues to defend what is ours: our history, our pride, and a government that defends its people. That is what is at stake today. That is why the mobilization on Sunday [May 31] is not just a celebration. It is not just saying: ‘we arrived [at the Presidency]… two years of results or a year and a half of results, in addition to the previous six years.’ It is not just that. Instead, we say: ‘today, when the governments of the Transformation are being attacked, we must be close to the people, mobilized, defending sovereignty, independence, freedom, democracy—democracy understood as the representation of the people, not the democracy of the elites.'”
President Sheinbaum sent a very clear message to the people, warning that the right is trying to snatch away what has been achieved with the governments of the Transformation, “because some sectors of the United States want a tailored government again, a [dictator] Porfirio Díaz, a government that hands over natural resources, a government that is told: ‘do this,’ and it does that, bowing its head. No. What do we say? We collaborate, we work on many things, we are business partners. But in Mexico, the people decide. No one else decides but the people, there are no external electors.”
Therefore, the president emphasized: “What we do not want is for them to use Mexico for their November election. We do not want any outside interference linked to those on the inside in next year’s election in Mexico. Let whoever the people decide win.” She reiterated that, by confronting the offensive, she will always be close to the people.
Regarding the dirty war, she cited the misinformation that there is no legal certainty in Mexico as an example. She questioned: “What problem of uncertainty is there in Mexico? None. The Court has ruled freely, many times in favor of companies. It is not true that ‘the Court is now against companies.’ It is not true, it is false. The court is there to administer justice within the framework of the Constitution and the laws. It is called the ‘Rule of Law.’ But we are not going back to the ‘State of crookedness’ as President López Obrador used to say, that which used to exist before, which is what they want… It will not return.”
President Sheinbaum also took the opportunity to send a clear message: “We have to defend the people’s achievements. That is why we have to talk about this, because if we do not, we will fall for the lies that are told every day. So, the call to mobilization is indeed to celebrate two years of victory, but it is also to say that we have to be united and active, informing the people about the offensive that is underway against us. To the extent that we are like this, close to the people, on the ground, and delivering results, there is no power that could defeat us… When a people empower themselves, there is no way to defeat them, no way. The people resist. What do we have to do? Be close to the people.”
Nancy Flores is an investigative journalist and professor of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
