- The head of US Northern Command claimed in March that Russia’s GRU has far more agents in Mexico than everywhere else.
- The GRU, Russia’s military services-intelligence company, has been accused of interfering in elections, fomenting coups, and assassinations.
Russia has a lot more intelligence brokers in Mexico than any other region, a superior-rating United States army official reported March 24.
Air Power Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the United States Northern Command, told the US Senate Committee on Armed Services that “the greatest part of GRU members in the environment is in Mexico ideal now.”
The GRU is Russia’s armed forces intelligence agency. VanHerck failed to say how many Russians spies are considered to be in Mexico but asserted that those people in this article “hold an eye quite intently on their possibilities to have influence on US chances and accessibility.”
The GRU has been accused of interfering in elections in the United States, making an attempt a coup in Montenegro in 2016, carrying out a cyberattack on the Entire world Anti-Doping Agency and poisoning former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the United Kingdom in 2018.
Dmitry Astakhov/AP
VanHerck also spoke about his concern that international locations such as Russia and China could acquire gain of the instability in Mexico produced by drug cartels.
“Transnational criminal businesses … make an environment that is not conducive to elevating a spouse and children [or] for financial accomplishment and we see that happening appropriate on our border, in Mexico,” he stated.
“My worry with that is the instability it creates, the chance it generates, for actors these as China, Russia and other people who could have nefarious activities on their thoughts to find accessibility and influence in … [the United States] from a countrywide protection viewpoint,” the standard mentioned.
“There are actors who are incredibly intense and energetic all throughout the North Command area of responsibility … [including] the Bahamas and Mexico,” he extra.
Despite the apparent existence of Russian spies listed here, VanHerck spoke remarkably of stability collaboration in between the United States and Mexico. The two nations around the world achieved a new security agreement late last 12 months.
VanHerck’s assertion about Russian brokers in Mexico arrived the identical working day as United States Amb. Ken Salazar rebuked Mexican lawmakers for displaying support for Russia despite that country’s invasion of Ukraine.
A team of deputies from the ruling Morena occasion, the Labor Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party formally established a Mexico-Russia friendship group on Wednesday.
Manuel Velasquez/Getty
At his morning push meeting on March 25, President López Obrador was questioned irrespective of whether there are Russian spies in Mexico.
“I you should not know. We will not have information about that,” he replied, prior to incorporating that “any foreigner who would like to have out lawful routines in the region can do so.”
“Those people who are criminals and commit crimes are detained neither Mexicans or foreigners are permitted to commit crimes in our nation,” López Obrador mentioned.
AMLO also claimed that Mexico doesn’t deliver spies abroad. “We never go to Moscow to spy on anybody nor to Beijing to spy on what is occurring in China. Nor do we go to Washington, not even Los Angeles, we don’t get concerned in that,” he mentioned.
With reviews from Reforma.