Salazar Plans Mexico City Visit After López Obrador Book Claims

Former U.S. ambassador Ken Salazar plans to return to Mexico City on Oct. 14 to “tell his story,” according to a message and video he posted on X. Salazar did not mention former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose new book has revived debate over the 2024 capture and transfer of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to the United States.

Infobae México reported that López Obrador’s book accuses the U.S. Justice Department and other American agencies of making a clandestine, extraterritorial pact with the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to move Zambada. The book describes the operation as “extrajudicial and interventionist,” while identifying Salazar as the ambassador who delivered a report and whose account López Obrador questions. López Obrador also wrote that he believed President Joe Biden was unaware of the operation and attributed a rise in daily homicides in Sinaloa—from 1.3 to 4.3, or about 1,100 killings between August 2024 and August 2025—to the case, according to the source’s review.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Oct. 7 that she needed to be careful because of her office but called López Obrador’s interpretation “very interesting” and worth reading. According to El Heraldo de México, she said she reads a few pages of the book each night and maintained that López Obrador did not claim Mexican agents took part. Salazar’s post did not specify a venue or time for his Oct. 14 appearance; Uno TV reported that bookstore Porrúa plans events for his book in several Mexican cities.