MEXICO CITY — Members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Cupboard awoke on Wednesday morning to information that U.S. aviation officers had shut down airspace over El Paso, the Texas metropolis reverse the border metropolis of Ciudad Juárez.
Coming simply weeks after the closure of airspace over Venezuela cleared the way in which for the seize of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the transfer triggered alarm amongst Cupboard members tasked with sustaining nationwide safety and raised concern of a potential incursion by U.S. forces, in accordance with individuals aware of the conversations. They spoke on situation of anonymity to reveal high-level discussions.
Officers suspected the El Paso airspace was closed in preparation for a unilateral raid in opposition to a drug kingpin in Chihuahua state, simply throughout the border in Mexico. U.S. officers described the closure as a matter of nationwide safety and stated it could final 10 days.
Omar García Harfuch, Mexico’s safety minister, referred to as high-ranking officers within the U.S. early Wednesday and was instructed that the closure was not associated to a raid on Mexico, in accordance with an official aware of the conversations.
He knowledgeable safety Cupboard officers at a each day morning briefing held by Sheinbaum, which included the ministers of protection and navy, of his name with U.S. officers.
Hours later, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration reopened the El Paso airspace. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X that “the menace had been neutralized.”
Formally, U.S. officers stated a cartel-operated drone had violated U.S. airspace and that it was neutralized by a robust anti-drone laser. A supply within the U.S. authorities who requested anonymity to debate inner issues stated the thing was not a drone however a Mylar get together balloon.
During the last yr, President Trump has threatened to ship U.S. particular forces after Mexican drug cartel kingpins. Trump has stated he’s repeatedly requested Sheinbaum to permit the U.S. army to function in Mexico, a suggestion she has rejected as unacceptable and a violation of Mexican sovereignty.
For Mexican officers, this week’s closure was particularly startling — and worrying — as a result of it got here simply weeks after the U.S. particular forces captured Maduro in Caracas on Jan. 3.
Mexican officers had watched with alarm because the U.S. ramped up strain on Maduro within the weeks earlier than his arrest, amassing warships off the Venezuelan coast earlier than capturing him and his spouse and bringing them to New York to face drug-trafficking expenses in U.S. federal courtroom.
This week, Mexican officers thought the U.S. was making ready such a strike in Mexico, individuals aware of the conversations stated.
“The priority was that there was a goal they needed on the Juárez aspect,” one individual aware of the talks stated.
Sheinbaum, in the meantime, has steadily elevated safety cooperation with the U.S., in an effort to assuage Trump and stave off unilateral U.S. motion inside Mexico. In an unprecedented transfer, the Sheinbaum administration circumvented Mexican extradition legislation and delivered practically 100 imprisoned drug lords to U.S. authorities within the final yr.
However these prisoner transfers haven’t eased tensions on the U.S.-Mexico border the place cartel drones repeatedly fly into U.S. airspace, in accordance with the Division of Homeland Safety.
Studies of airspace closure unfold shortly in El Paso on Wednesday morning.
“I assumed they had been transferring a high-value goal in or out of the world,” stated El Paso resident Narada Johnson.
“This pointless determination has precipitated chaos and confusion within the El Paso group,” stated the town’s mayor, Renard Johnson, in a information convention after the restriction was lifted. “This could by no means have occurred.”
The closure got here after the Division of Homeland Safety ready to fireplace a robust counter-drone laser. Use of the weapon was confirmed by The Instances. The company focused what was regarded as a cartel-controlled “darkish drone,” which doesn’t emit a radio sign or broadcast its identification, in accordance with one individual aware of the operation who requested anonymity to debate inner issues.
In latest months, the U.S. authorities has ramped up counter-drone operations on the southern border. Prison teams typically use the drones to visitors fentanyl and surveil U.S. legislation enforcement operations, stated Steven Willoughby, director of the counter-drone program on the Division of Homeland Safety, at a congressional listening to final July.
Willoughby stated that in 2023 legislation enforcement seized one such drone carrying 3.6 kilos of fentanyl. Willoughby stated the Division of Homeland Safety counted some 27,000 drones flying inside 500 meters (nearly 550 yards) of the U.S. border, simply within the final half of 2024.
At her each day information convention Wednesday, Sheinbaum appeared to dismiss the presence of cartel-operated drones within the border area.
“There isn’t a data associated to the usage of drones on the border,” Sheinbaum stated.
Nonetheless, cartel drone incursions topped the agenda of the newest bilateral safety assembly in Mexico Metropolis late final yr, in accordance with individuals aware of the talks. On the assembly, U.S. officers confused the necessity for higher coordination to cease drone incursions into U.S. airspace. The Mexican authorities stated it could create a working group on the subject.
Fisher is a particular correspondent. Particular correspondent Alyda Muela in El Paso contributed to this report. This text was co-published with Puente Information Collaborative, a bilingual nonprofit newsroom that covers tales from Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border.
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