Four foreigners — not two — were on the ground during a counter-cartel operation last week in northern Mexico, where an automobile crash killed two men that were later confirmed to be Central Intelligence Agency officers, a Mexican state prosecutor said on Monday.
The two C.I.A. officers, along with two Mexican officials, died on April 19 when their vehicle plunged off a remote mountain road in the northern state of Chihuahua as they returned from an operation led by Mexico’s armed forces to dismantle a large clandestine methamphetamine lab. The state authorities had initially said only two foreigners were part of the operation.
The episode set off a tense standoff between President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico and the government of Chihuahua state, where she has directed much of her frustration. She has repeatedly said her security cabinet had no knowledge of C.I.A. activities on the ground in the state and warned they may have been illegal, launching a federal investigation into the matter.
She has also demanded information from the United States to clarify the role of the two C.I.A. agents in the operation to determine whether it violated Mexico’s security laws, which bar foreign agents from operating in the country without prior federal authorization.
Speaking to reporters on Monday evening, Wendy Paola Chávez, the Chihuahua special prosecutor, said there were in fact four foreigners at the scene, not just the two C.I.A. officers, though she did not confirm whether the two additional officers were Americans or whether they were members of the C.I.A.
She said the four foreigners were dressed as civilians with their faces mostly covered, and they carried no weapons or identification. They were working directly with the head of the state investigative agency, she said, and that their participation was limited, “with no direct operational interaction,” except with the agency’s director, who was also killed in the crash. She also said that the two unidentified agents, along with Mexican officers, tried to rescue the car crash victims.
Their presence was not reported to higher-ranking military officials, Ms. Chávez said, and the agency’s director did not inform his superiors that the four foreign officers would be involved.
The prosecutor’s office has asked the U.S. Embassy, which claimed the two bodies, for information about the identities and roles of the other two foreigners.
Over the weekend, the Mexican government said that the two C.I.A. officers killed in the crash had no formal authorization to carry out operations in the country. One of the two officials entered the country as a visitor — “without permission to engage in paid work” — and the other arrived on a diplomatic passport, the Mexican federal security cabinet said in a statement.
Amid the fallout, the Chihuahua state attorney general, César Jáuregui Moreno, resigned Monday, citing “omissions” and “inconsistencies” from his staff that he said failed to inform him that U.S. personnel were present during the drug raid operation that led to the seizure of six drug laboratories.
His resignation followed a week of shifting and contradictory accounts from his office about the Americans’ role in the operation. State officials initially said the men were killed while returning “from an operation to dismantle clandestine laboratories.” State officials later said they were part of an authorized training program to teach Mexican counterparts how to handle dangerous synthetic drugs.
Mr. Jáuregui subsequently said U.S. personnel had not taken part in the operation itself, which he described as led by Mexican forces, adding that the Americans “instructors” arrived afterward for training purposes, “such as teaching the handling of drones.”
Ms. Sheinbaum said Tuesday that the investigation into the presence of C.I.A. agents in the counter-drug operation should continue following the attorney general’s resignation.
“The investigation must continue, it doesn’t stop with a resignation,” she said during a news conference. The federal attorney general’s office is also investigating the case, Ms. Sheinbaum said.
Her comments come at a tense moment in U.S.-Mexico relations as President Trump has mounted pressure on Mexico to do more against drug cartels, at times saying he would launch U.S. military actions against cartels on Mexican territory — a proposal Ms. Sheinbaum has repeatedly rejected. Driven in part by Mr. Trump’s pressure, she has carried out a sweeping crackdown on cartel groups.
Ms. Sheinbaum said Tuesday the Trump administration was providing information about the presence of C.I.A. officers in Chihuahua following a diplomatic note sent by Mexico last week, adding that U.S. officials had responded that “they clearly state that they want to respect the law and the Constitution of Mexico.”
Ms. Sheinbaum said she did not plan to expel additional U.S. agents after the incident, but added that she had told the U.S. government “that Mexico must be respected.”
