Pamela Cruz, editor-in-chief of the Mexican Press Agency: “Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada’s guilty plea is, without question, historic. One of the founders of the Sinaloa Cartel admitting his role in drug trafficking and confessing to bribing Mexican officials reveals the depth of a problem inherited from decades past. But it also opens an opportunity for President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government to reaffirm the path it has charted on security and international cooperation. The president has been clear in her response: Mexico will request information on the case and handle it within the framework of the law, but always under an unshakable principle of ‘shared responsibility, mutual trust, respect for sovereignty and cooperation without subordination.’ This is not mere rhetoric, but rather a state strategy aimed at avoiding Mexico’s subordination to Washington’s security agenda. The administration understands that drug trafficking is a binational phenomenon…”