Mexican governor indicted by the U.S. for drug trafficking says he’ll step down

Sinaloa state Gov. Ruben Rocha waves as he takes part in an annual earthquake drill in Culiacan, Mexico, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

MEXICO CITY — The governor of Mexico’s northern Sinaloa state said that he would temporarily resign after the United States charged him and nine other officials with drug trafficking in a bombshell indictment that has shaken the political establishment.

In a short video announcement posted at midnight Friday, Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, a high-ranking member of Mexico’s progressive ruling party Morena, denied accusations that he protected the powerful Sinaloa cartel and helped it smuggle drugs into the U.S. in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.

“My conscience is clear,” he said. “To my people and to my family, I can look you in the eye because I have never betrayed you, and I never will.”

But he said he would take “temporary leave” from his post as governor to defend himself against what he called the “false and malicious” allegations and cooperate with the investigation launched by the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum to determine whether he should be arrested or extradited to the U.S.

Sheinbaum, who has struggled to strike a balance between the interests of her party and pressure from President Donald Trump step up the fight against cartels, has so far refused to hand over Rocha to the U.S.

She says she hasn’t seen credible evidence against Rocha but vowed that Mexican authorities would investigate the cases and gather their own information.

Rocha, a staunch ally of Sheinbaum’s mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has insisted the indictment against him and other members of their dominant Morena party amount to an attack on the left-leaning political movement.

“I will not allow myself to be used to harm the movement to which I belong — one that has improved the lives of millions of Mexican men and women,” he said in the video.

As governor, Rocha has immunity from criminal prosecution. Mexico’s Congress must first impeach him if he is to face charges.

The Associated Press