Fended from the US, Haitian migrants now dream of Monterrey and Mexico City. And Washington could indict top Morena officials for ties with drug cartels.
Ignacio Portes & Jorge C. Carrasco
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Washington is reportedly probing top Mexican officials
In a highly symbolic address delivered in the state of Sinaloa, home to Mexico’s eponymous Sinaloa cartel, US Ambassador Ronald Johnson suggested last week that authorities in Washington are readying an anti-corruption campaign against senior Mexican officials with alleged links to organized crime.
According to the Los Angeles Times, efforts will go beyond the well-trodden path of visa cancellations to include formal indictments in US Federal courts against members of the ruling Morena party.
As The Brazilian Report has explained, the indictments could be based on the testimony of cooperating witnesses arrested in the US, including two sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and their internal rival, Joaquín “El Mayo” Zambada, among other pieces of evidence.
👉 Why it matters. Less than four months after the capture of Venezuela’s former President Nicolás Maduro on drug trafficking allegations — and amid reports that New York courts are examining possible links between Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro and drug networks — news about investigations into Mexican officials could send another political shockwave across the region.
Morena members who have reportedly had their US visas revoked include Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, who has been linked to the state’s dominant cartel, as well as Marina del Pilar Ávila, governor of Baja California, which borders the United States.
Mexican media report that potential targets could also include the son of former President Andrés Manuel “AMLO” López Obrador, which would strike closer to Morena’s political core.
While President Claudia Sheimbaum is free of corruption suspicions, AMLO remains Morena’s party’s de facto leader, given his enduring influence over unions, governors, Congress and federal courts. Sheinbaum rose to power with the former president’s blessing, and has since tried to balance relations between Washington and Palenque, the southern city where AMLO now resides.
Ambassador Johnson highlighted the “cooperation and dialogue” between Sheinbaum and Donald Trump’s administration, but added that the upcoming renegotiation of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) would be tied to improved prosecution of corruption south of the border.
“The message is simple: where integrity is strong, investment grows. Where it is not, opportunity is lost,” Johnson said. “That’s why USMCA requires our governments to criminalize bribery and corruption and enforce codes of conduct for public officials. We may soon see significant action on this front. So, stay tuned.”
A former intelligence operative, Johnson has been under fire following the mysterious death of two CIA agents in Mexico during a raid on drug laboratories in the border state of Chihuahua.
President Sheinbaum denied knowledge of the CIA operation and called for a full investigation of their presence in the country, which is now being blamed on opposition governor Maru Campos, as well as on Johnson himself.
“The federal government had no knowledge of the role these people were playing. We hope this turns out to be an exceptional case and that from now on the constitution and the national security laws will continue to be followed as they had been before,” Sheinbaum said after Mexico handed a protest note to the US government.
This is not the first time a major security event has unfolded in Mexico with Sheinbaum appearing to be the last to know. She was similarly absent from the picture when her military took down Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader El Mencho with help from US intelligence. Sheinbaum was touring the state of Coahuila as the raid unfolded, and delegated reports to her generals afterward.
These strange events have fueled speculation that the Mexican military is either cooperating with Washington behind her back, or that she has quietly authorized such coordination and is feigning ignorance to avoid a rupture with AMLO.
MEXICO
Haitian migrant caravans are rethinking their journeys
Turmoil and tragedy have driven millions of Haitians out of their country. But as their diaspora has grown, so too have clashes with host societies, prompting right-wing governments across Latin America to push back against their presence.
From Chile to the United States, Haitian migrants now face stricter border enforcement, expanded deportations, challenges to their refugee status and lower chances of securing asylum. As a result, their migration routes are shifting.
Typical paths — which took Haitians through Central America and Mexico en route to the US — are becoming less viable. Increasingly, migrants are recalibrating their plans, with cities like Mexico City, Monterrey or Guadalajara emerging as final destinations. Many, however, don’t even make it that far.
The Mexican government has been keeping close tabs on these migrants, sending local authorities to negotiate with caravans that form near the Guatemalan border. In an effort to remain in Donald Trump’s good graces, President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has offered migrants transportation and temporary entry permits in exchange for abandoning their journey north.
The new trend is a significant departure from earlier migratory waves. Between 2021 and 2023, Haitians were among the largest nationality groups attempting to reach the US border, often after months or years of arduous travel through South America, the Darién Gap and Central America — with Mexico serving primarily as a transit corridor, at times marked by dangerous encounters with local cartels.
👉 Why it matters. The displacement of migrant pressure away from the US could have significant implications for Mexico, where a more permissive approach may strain urban services, labor markets and cultural integration. The precedents of Donald Trump in the US and José Antonio Kast in Chile, who rose to the presidency after hammering their rivals over Haitian migration in particular, mean that Sheinbaum will also have to watch for political tests in this area.
Trump’s return to office significantly raised the cost and difficulty of migrants reaching the US, while Mexico has quietly expanded humanitarian visas, temporary work opportunities, and tolerance for informal settlements in large cities, with some industries making use of newcomers to address labor shortages.
Haitian migrants themselves have also changed. Many have picked up Spanish during their years in South America, where earlier Haitian diasporas took root following the devastating 2010 earthquake and the country’s subsequent political collapse. This growing linguistic and cultural familiarity has made Mexico City and Monterrey less daunting destinations than they used to be for French and Creole-speaking natives.
The large caravans that Mexico dealt with in 2018 and 2019 were mostly from Central America, but Haitian migration differed in key ways — traveling longer distances, arriving with little to no local support networks, and reporting higher levels of racial and linguistic discrimination.
Mexico City has already seen growing Haitian communities in neighborhoods like Iztapalapa and Tláhuac, where many have settled while awaiting asylum decisions. Monterrey, with its large manufacturing base, has become another magnet.
While northern cities fear the impact of migrants that are no longer merely passing through, responsibility continues to be pushed southwards, where shelters are also overwhelmed due to limited infrastructure.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Last week, we asked you which country in the region posted the highest temperatures last year, and 53% of you guessed right. The correct answer was El Salvador, whose tropical latitude lacks Colombia’s high altitude or Cuba’s maritime winds, both of which can serve as cooling factors.
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