MEXICO CITY:
The governor of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, who has been accused by the US of aiding one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels, said on Friday he would step down temporarily as a local investigation into the charges proceeds.
In televised remarks late Friday, Ruben Rocha said he was innocent and left his post with a “clean conscience.” He criticized the U.S. charges against him as an attack on the ruling political movement to which he belongs.
Rocha is of the same Morena party as President Claudia Sheinbaum, making the U.S. indictment announced on Wednesday a thorny issue for the Mexican leader. Rocha is also a long-time ally of Sheinbaum’s predecessor and mentor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Alongside Rocha, the indictment also charged a slew of other current and former Mexican officials for allegedly conspiring with the Sinaloa Cartel.
