Sometimes among all the high-blown rhetoric, symposia, and communiqués, the curtain is pulled back to reveal the simple levers that operate the diplomatic world. In a remarkable interview published in the Mexican newsmagazine Proceso earlier this month, former US ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson blithely revealed that during the presidency of Felipe Calderón (2006–12), the United States had known that the Mexican secretary of public security, Genaro García Luna, had personal ties to drug cartels. 

What’s more, the information, according to Jacobson, came from Mexican sources. “The Mexican government knew as much as we did, if not more, and never took action at the time. For that reason, I find it a little naïve to blame the United States for not taking its own measures,” the former ambassador said.

As the nation’s “top cop” in the Calderón government, the allegation is that García Luna served as the front man for the Sinaloa Cartel, facilitating its shipments of cocaine and other drugs into the United States while leaking inside information regarding official investigations and the activities of rival cartels. For this, he was to have been paid the handsome sum of $6–10 million.