Rubén Rocha Moya, the governor of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, reversed his decision to return to office after an extraordinary backlash from his own ruling party over accusations by U.S. prosecutors that he conspired with a powerful cartel to smuggle drugs into the United States. State lawmakers were expected Sunday to approve Rocha Moya’s request for an indefinite leave of absence, about a day and a half after he announced his return by claiming Mexican prosecutors had cleared him of the drug trafficking charges leveled against him by the U.S. Department of Justice in late April.
Who Gets Dragged Into the Machinery
Rocha Moya, 77, had been on leave since early May, days after federal prosecutors in New York unsealed an indictment accusing him and nine other current and former Mexican officials of protecting Sinaloa cartel members in exchange for bribes as they trafficked fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine into the U.S. The indictment marked the Trump administration’s most significant public action against what it calls official corruption enabling Mexico’s cartels. That’s the apparatus speaking in the language of law, while the people at the bottom keep living with the damage.
Sheinbaum denied shielding Rocha Moya but rejected Washington’s request to arrest and extradite the defendants without credible evidence, insisting that any prosecution take place in Mexico. The dispute shows the familiar border theater: one state demanding custody, another demanding control, and ordinary people left under the weight of both.
Rocha Moya denied wrongdoing and described the charges as a politically motivated attack. He initially stepped aside so he could cooperate with the Mexican investigation without relying on the constitutional immunity attached to his office. Whether taking leave stripped him of that protection — and whether his latest request to step aside indefinitely would do so again — remains disputed among Mexican legal scholars.
Party Discipline, Not Public Accountability
After nearly four months on leave, Rocha Moya announced Friday that he was returning to office, claiming Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office had found “no evidence to support our participation in any criminal conduct.” He declared that he was back “as governor of Sinaloa with my head held high.” That defiance lasted barely a day, as his return unleashed a torrent of criticism from governors, senators and other prominent figures in Morena, including Sheinbaum.
“No personal interest can ever come before the interests of the people and the nation,” she wrote Saturday in an apparent rebuke of Rocha Moya, without mentioning him by name. “Mexico deserves public servants who understand that positions are temporary, but responsibility to the nation is eternal.” Morena said its national leadership had no prior knowledge of Rocha Moya’s return, calling it his “personal decision.” The party’s Senate bloc urged respect for the ongoing investigation, while Morena governors declared in a joint statement that “personal or group political projects have no place” when the country’s interests are at stake.
Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s leader in the lower house of Congress, publicly urged Rocha Moya, his longtime ally, to reconsider and remain on leave. The coordinated response left Rocha Moya isolated. He announced later Saturday that he had asked the state legislature to allow him to step aside indefinitely. “Sinaloa, the nation and the transformation movement come first,” he wrote.
What the State Leaves Behind
After the indictment, the mayor of Culiacán, Sinaloa’s capital, and the state’s deputy attorney general also stepped down from their posts, while two former senior state officials surrendered to U.S. authorities. Sinaloa has been engulfed for nearly two years in a bloody conflict between rival factions of the cartel that bears the state’s name.
That’s the human cost sitting underneath the press releases and party statements. Officials trade accusations, prosecutors file indictments, and party leaders police loyalty. Meanwhile, the state itself remains a battleground where cartel violence, institutional corruption and political survival keep grinding through ordinary lives.
The leave request now sits before state lawmakers, another reminder that the same institutions accused of protecting power are the ones expected to manage the fallout. The public gets procedure. The powerful get to argue over which courtroom, which capital and which legal shield will decide the next move.