Sheinbaum Orders Report on Ex-Chihuahua Prosecutor Who Aided CIA
Sheinbaum asked security agencies for a report on Guillermo Zuany, the former Chihuahua deputy prosecutor who says he helped CIA agents join police raids.
President Claudia Sheinbaum has asked Mexico’s federal security agencies for a report on Guillermo Zuany, a former deputy prosecutor in the northern state of Chihuahua who has said he helped CIA agents take part in state police operations. Speaking at her morning press conference (the mañanera) on Friday, Nov. 13, Sheinbaum confirmed that the Security Cabinet, the group of federal security ministries, already holds information on him.
Zuany is believed to be in the United States, El Financiero reported. Sheinbaum called his case a long story and declined to go into it, but said the Security Cabinet knows how a man who rose to deputy prosecutor at the Chihuahua State Attorney General’s Office (Fiscalía del Estado de Chihuahua) came to work with US agencies.
What Zuany told The New York Times
Zuany told The New York Times that for six months he arranged for CIA agents to work alongside Chihuahua state police on operations, without approval from Mexico’s federal government. According to the newspaper, the agents first joined operations in the fall of 2025.
The Times reported that Zuany had lost his US visa over alleged ties to criminal organizations, which made him a useful partner for bringing American agents into operations against criminal groups. In return for acting as the CIA’s trusted contact in the state, he was to get help having his permission to enter the United States restored, the paper said.
People familiar with the arrangement told the Times that Zuany introduced the agents as the team in charge of building a new special forces unit. The CIA then gave intelligence and guidance to Mexican officers. According to the report, its agents did not take part in armed confrontations.
Raids described in the report
The Times described at least two operations carried out with American agents present:
- A failed attempt to arrest an alleged crime boss at a bar. The suspects got away before authorities arrived.
- A raid on a safe house used by a criminal group, where one CIA agent reportedly provided cover from outside the building with a rifle. After several suspects were detained, a CIA agent sat in on the interrogation and went through the digital devices that police had seized.
Dispute over what the governor knew
The New York Times also reported that Chihuahua Governor María Eugenia Campos knew foreign agents were present during the operations and training sessions. The state attorney general’s office denied that account on the same day the report came out.
What it means for US-Mexico security ties
The case raises the question of whether a state government let a foreign intelligence agency join police work on Mexican soil without the federal government’s consent. Sheinbaum’s request for a formal report brings the federal security agencies into a matter that so far has been described mainly through Zuany’s own account to a US newspaper and the denial from Chihuahua officials.
For readers following relations between the two countries, the episode adds to scrutiny of how US agencies operate inside Mexico. The president did not say when the report would be finished or whether it would be made public.
Source: El Financiero
