Mexico City — President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday rejected allegations that Mexican consulates in the United States engage in political activism, calling the claims “completely false.”
Sheinbaum’s remarks came after CBS News reported that it had launched a review of Mexico’s consular network in the US, citing a leak from Dylan Johnson, the US Deputy Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs.
“This idea that Mexican consulates are doing politics in the United States is completely false,” Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference. “What the consulates do is always protect their citizens. When there is a raid, they have the obligation to provide protection, give them a lawyer, support them.”
Sheinbaum emphasized that Mexico’s 53 consulates in the US only carry out activities to protect Mexican nationals and provide routine services such as passports and birth certificates. They do not engage in any form of political activity against the US government, she said.
“We do not agree, it is not like that, that the consulates carry out any type of politics against the government of the United States. That is absolutely false,” Sheinbaum stated.
When asked whether the US review of Mexican consulates had already begun, Sheinbaum said, “We have no information. There is no reason for it to happen.”
Sheinbaum reiterated that the principle of self-determination must be guaranteed for every country, including the United States, and that Mexico does not conduct politics on US soil. Mexican consulates, she said, act as consulates of any other country should.
