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Mexican President Sheinbaum Fights Musk's Cartel Puppet Claims · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  Mexico's President Claudia Scheinbaum is currently
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  consulting with lawyers to take legal action against Elon Musk
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  after he publicly accused her of being a puppet for drug cartels.
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  Right. And we have to look at the
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  immediate context right away. This isn't just some random
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  social media feud happening in a vacuum.
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  This is happening in the immediate aftermath of the
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  Mexican military killing El Mencho, one of the most powerful
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  cartel leaders in history. And all of this is surrounded by
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  open threats of U.S. military intervention.
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  So it is a head on collision between a digital accusation, a
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  very violent reality on the ground in Mexico, and the
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  intense geopolitical pressure coming from the US
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  administration. Exactly.
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  When a tech billionaire aligns with AUS president to challenge
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  a neighbor's sovereignty, does the reality of military success
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  on the ground even matter against the narrative online?
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  That is the massive question hanging over everything here.
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  We are going to start right with the accusation itself.
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  This kicked off when Elon Musk commented on a video of
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  President Sheinbaum. He didn't just criticize her
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  policy or say he disagreed with her approach.
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  He made a very specific, dangerous claim.
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  He wrote that Scheinbaum repeats what cartel bosses tell her to
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  say. And he actually took it a step
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  further than that. He used corporate language to
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  imply a death threat. Yeah, he said the punishment for
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  her disobedience would be worse than a performance improvement
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  plan. Which honestly sent a chill down
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  my spine because in the corporate world, APIP just means
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  you might get fired. Right, but fired in that world
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  means you lose your life. He is basically using this
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  sanitized Silicon Valley language to describe torture or
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  assassination. It is incredibly dark.
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  He is implying that the democratically elected leader of
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  Mexico is an employee of a criminal organization, like she
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  is subject to their HR department, which is essentially
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  a squad of hit men. Normally you expect a head of
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  state to just ignore this stuff, don't feed the trolls, even if
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  the troll is the richest man in the world.
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  But Scheinbaum responded at her Tuesday morning press
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  conference, she didn't ignore it at all.
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  She went right at it. She called the allegations
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  absurd, demonstrably false and laughable.
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  And then she dropped the news that her lawyers are looking
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  into legal action. Which is a massive escalation.
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  Why go that route? Why not just stick to the
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  denial? Well, because she isn't just
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  fighting back on a social platform, she is looking to move
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  this into a courtroom. By suggesting legal action, she
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  is attempting to define this accusation as defamation rather
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  than protected political speech. She is drawing a hard line.
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  She absolutely has to. This attacks the legitimacy of
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  her government. If the narrative takes hold that
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  the president is literally taking orders from cartels, her
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  authority collapses. She sees this as defending the
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  state itself. If the world believes the
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  Mexican government is just a front for the cartels, then
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  Mexico isn't a sovereign nation anymore.
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  It's just a criminal enterprise. But here is where the timing
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  gets incredibly messy and why that accusation stings so much.
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  While Musk was typing those comments, Mexico was quite
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  literally burning. Sunday, February 22, 2026, the
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  Mexican military tracked down and killed Nemesio Osiguera
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  Cervantes, known as El Mencho, into Pulpa.
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  And that name, El Mencho, carries a huge amount of weight.
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  Wait back up for people who don't have the cartel org charts
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  memorized or haven't been following this for 10 years.
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  Who exactly is El Mencho and why is this such a big deal?
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  He was the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
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  The CJNG taking him down has been a top priority for the
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  Mexican government and the US government for decades.
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  This wasn't a low level enforcer, this was the head of
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  the snake. He was the heir to the kind of
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  power El Chapo had, but arguably much more militarized.
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  And the reaction to his death wasn't a victory parade.
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  No, it was war. The cartel responded
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  immediately. They set up roadblocks, they
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  torched vehicles and buildings, and they engaged in open
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  firefights with security forces. Dozens of people were killed in
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  the violence that followed that operation.
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  It was a kinetic, bloody battle. So you have the military Terry
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  engaging in a massive operation to kill a top cartel leader, you
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  have smoke rising over to Papa, and at the exact same time you
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  have the online narrative claiming the government works
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  for the cartels. That is the split screen reality
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  we are looking at. On the ground, the government
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  struck a massive blow against organized crime, a blow that
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  cost lies and cause chaos. But online, the narrative is
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  that the government is controlled by the very people
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  they just fought a battle against, it feels.
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  Like 2 completely different worlds.
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  They are entirely different worlds, and the tragedy for
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  Sheinbaum is that the violence on the ground, the reality of
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  what happened in to Pulpa, is being totally overshadowed by
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  the Internet posts. The algorithm is basically
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  winning over the airstrike. Now, Musk's comments didn't just
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  fall out of the sky, they were triggered by a video of
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  Sheinbaum advocating for alternatives to the militaristic
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  war on drugs. This brings us to the core
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  ideological conflict. Shanebaum has consistently
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  argued for addressing root causes.
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  She talks about poverty, education, and sovereignty.
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  She strongly believes that a purely military solution hasn't
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  worked for the last 20 years, so why would it work now?
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  But then you have Musk and his political allies, who see that
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  language as total weakness. They view anything short of
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  Total War as capitulation to them.
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  If you aren't scorching the earth, you are helping the
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  enemy. When she talks about
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  alternatives, they just hear surrender.
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  This puts Scheinbaum in a really difficult position.
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  Even when she uses military force like she just did with El
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  Mencha which is hard powered its purest form, her rhetoric about
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  alternatives is used to paint her as weak it.
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  Limits her diplomatic room for maneuver completely.
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  She can't win the argument if she uses force.
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  Critics say it's too little, too late.
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  She talks about social programs. She's labeled a puppet.
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  She is totally stuck between her own ideology and the demands of
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  her northern neighbor. We really have to talk about the
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  political giants standing right next to Musk and all this.
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  He is closely aligned with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has
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  taken a much more aggressive stance.
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  Trump has been extremely explicit, he told Fox News.
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  The cartels are running Mexico. He accused Scheinbaum of being
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  frightened. He also threw the State
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  Department into the mix back in September.
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  They listed Mexico as an area of concern regarding drug
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  trafficking. They demanded aggressive efforts
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  to dismantle labs and finances. The diplomatic language was very
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  harsh. It effectively put Mexico on
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  notice. Hold on though, we hear a lot of
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  tough talk from politicians all the time.
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  Is this just rhetoric? Is this just throwing red meat
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  to a base or is there a real threat here?
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  It is absolutely not just talk. You have to look at the
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  precedent set recently. On January 3, 2026, the US
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  military launched an operation to abduct Venezuelan President
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  Nicolas Maduro. That happened.
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  That is a real thing that happened just this year.
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  Exactly. The administration has proven it
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  is willing to use military force on foreign soil to target
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  leadership it deems illegitimate or dangerous.
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  That changed the calculus for everyone in Latin America.
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  So when Trump says he might launch strikes on Mexican.
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  Soil Mexico has to treat that as a highly credible threat.
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  It opens up a genuine fear in Mexico City.
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  Trump's willingness to go into Venezuela makes his threat to
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  enter Mexico real, regardless of whether Scheinbaum refuses
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  permission. And she has refused.
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  She has been very clear that unilateral US intervention would
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  violate Mexican sovereignty. But if the US president believes
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  the Mexican president is a puppet of the cartels, he
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  creates an internal justification to ignore that
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  sovereignty. The logic goes that they aren't
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  invading a partner nation, they are neutralizing an ARCO state.
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  It is terrifying to think about the implications of that logic,
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  But let's look at the defense here.
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  Scheinbaum isn't just sitting there taking these accusations.
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  She has specific data to defend her security record.
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  She definitely does. The numbers tell a story of
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  active engagement. In February 2025, she deployed
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  nearly 10,000 National Guard troops to the northern border
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  specifically to fight fentanyl trafficking.
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  That is a massive deployment. That isn't something you do if
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  you are trying to help the smugglers.
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  Right. And it's not just troops on the
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  border. She's been extraditing suspects
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  to the US consistently. In January 2025 alone, Mexico
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  extradited 37 people to the US. Plus, there were other large
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  groups sent over in April and August.
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  These are individuals the US justice system specifically
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  wants, and she's actively handing them over.
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  And then of course, there is the elimination of El Mencho.
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  You simply don't kill a cartel boss if you are on his payroll.
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  That is exactly the argument she is making.
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  The successful operation against El Mencho should be the ultimate
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  proof that she is not beholden to him.
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  Why doesn't this data change the narrative then?
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  Why do Musk and Trump keep pushing the puppet line when the
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  facts on the ground clearly contradict it?
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  Because the nature of the dispute has shifted, the US
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  intelligence agencies know she is acting.
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  They are fully aware of the 10,000 troops and the
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  extraditions. The disagreement centers
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  entirely on sovereignty. Scheinbaum is cooperating on
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  extraditions and border guards, but she adamantly refuses to let
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  the US military operate freely inside Mexico.
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  And that refusal is exactly what they are attacking.
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  Trump and Musk interpret her defense of Mexican sovereignty
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  as submission to the cartels. They basically say if you won't
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  let us come in and fix it our way, you must be on their side.
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  It is a total trap for her. If she protects her country's
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  sovereignty, she gets labeled A cartel puppet.
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  If she lets the US military in, she permanently gives up her
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  country's sovereignty. She is painted into an
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  impossible corner. Suing Elon Musk is a way to try
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  and break out of that corner. It is a very desperate attempt
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  to assert that she is a legitimate leader who cannot be
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  bullied by a foreign billionaire, regardless of how
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  many social media platforms he owns.
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  It is a really bold move suing the owner of the platform where
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  the dominant narrative is actually being built.
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  It is She dismissed the criticism as entirely out of
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  touch with what is happening in, she stated.
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  What matters to her is the opinion of the Mexican people
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  who see the work of the armed forces on the ground every
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  single day. But the audience for Musk posts
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  isn't just the Mexican people. It is the American voter, the
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  American government and the global markets.
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  And that is exactly why the lawsuit matters so much.
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  It is a calculated attempt to correct the record on a global
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  stage before the justification for military intervention
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  becomes permanently set in stone.
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  We have a Mexican president with a fresh military victory against
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  a top cartel Lord being sued, or rather threatening to sue, in
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  the court of public opinion by the world's richest man.
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  While the US president threatens military strikes on her soil,
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  the facts of her enforcement are continually being buried by a
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  narrative of complicity. If Scheinbaum actually proceeds
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  with a lawsuit against Musk, it raises a massive question.
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  Can a head of state effectively sue a private citizen of a
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  superpower neighbor without triggering A diplomatic crisis
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  that overshadows the actual war on drugs?
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