US Dropping Case Against Former Mexican Defense Secretary

NEW YORK: A federal judge was expected to grant a U.S. government request to drop drug charges against former Mexican Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos on Wednesday, a move Mexico said would restore trust in severely strained security cooperation ties.

U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon in Brooklyn, New York is considering the request after Tuesday’s abrupt announcement by U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Mexico Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero that the U.S. case would end.

Cienfuegos, 72, had served as Mexico’s defense minister from 2012 to 2018 under former President Enrique Pena Nieto, and the case prompted the current government to threaten a review of agreements allowing U.S. agents to operate in Mexico.