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 best way for the seize of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the transfer triggered alarm amongst Cupboard members tasked with sustaining nationwide safety and raised worry of a potential incursion by U.S. forces, in accordance with individuals acquainted with 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 will final 10 days.
Omar García Harfuch, Mexico’s safety minister, referred to as excessive rating officers within the U.S. early on Wednesday and was advised that the closure was not associated to a raid on Mexico, in accordance with an official acquainted with the conversations.
He knowledgeable safety Cupboard officers at a day by 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 article was not a drone however a Mylar occasion balloon.
Over the past 12 months, 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. navy to function in Mexico, a proposal 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 stress 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 fees in U.S. federal courtroom.
This week, Mexican officers thought the U.S. was making ready such a strike in Mexico, individuals acquainted with the conversations stated.
“The priority was that there was a goal they wished on the Juárez aspect,” one individual acquainted with 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 almost 100 imprisoned drug lords to U.S. authorities within the final 12 months.
However these prisoner transfers haven’t eased tensions on the U.S.-Mexico border the place cartel drones usually fly into U.S. airspace, in accordance with the Division of Homeland Safety.
Experiences of airspace closure unfold rapidly in El Paso on Wednesday morning.
“I assumed they have been shifting a high-value goal in or out of the realm,” stated El Paso resident Narada Johnson.
“This pointless determination has brought about chaos and confusion within the El Paso neighborhood,” stated 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 fireside 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 acquainted with the operation who requested anonymity to debate inner issues.
In current months, the U.S. authorities has ramped up counter-drone operations on the southern border. Prison teams typically use the drones to site 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 day by day information convention Wednesday, Sheinbaum appeared to dismiss the presence of cartel-operated drones within the border area.
“There is no such thing as a data associated to using drones on the border,” Sheinbaum stated.
Nevertheless, cartel drone incursions topped the agenda of the latest bilateral safety assembly in Mexico Metropolis late final 12 months, in accordance with individuals acquainted with the talks. On the assembly, U.S. officers harassed the necessity for larger coordination to cease drone incursions into U.S. airspace. The Mexican authorities stated it will create a working group on the subject.
Unbiased journalist Alyda Muela contributed reporting from El Paso. This text was co-published with Puente Information Collaborative, a bilingual nonprofit newsroom that covers tales from Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border.
