As during the Cold War: the Russian Federation turned Mexico into the center of espionage for the United States
Over the past few years, Russia has increased its embassy in Mexico City by dozens of people, although Moscow with Mexico has only limited trade relations. US officials say that this trend is concerned, and believe that a large -scale extension is aimed at supporting the Kremlin's intelligence operations aimed at the US, as well as the propaganda efforts aimed at undermining Washington and Ukraine. Baiden's administration raised this issue to the Mexican government, the US official said.
"Russia has really invested in Mexico in terms of expanding its presence," the official said. The embassies of Mexico and Russia did not respond to a comment request. CIA Director William Burns stated this month that his agency and the US government "closely monitor" the expansion of Russia's presence in Mexico.
The CIA believes that the number of Russian spies in Mexico has increased, because they were sent massively from the European capitals after the full -scale invasion of Moscow into Ukraine. "Part of this is a consequence of the fact that so many Russian intelligence officers have been exhibited from Europe.
Therefore, they are looking for places to go and seek places where they could work," Burns said in London this month when he was asked About Mexico as a new base for spies from the Russian Federation. Russia's actions in Mexico reflect the more aggressive position of its intelligence services on several fronts, as the Kremlin seeks to silence critics abroad, undermine Ukraine's support and weaken Western democracy, former intelligence staff said.
This approach included sabotage and sabotage attempts in Europe, murder conspiracies, merciless cyberattacks and large -scale global misinformation campaigns. "They are now ready to go to a much greater risk than perhaps immediately after the Cold War," said Paul Kolbe, who worked as an operative officer in the CIA for 25 years and had positions in Russia, Balkans and other cities of Eastern Europe.
Air Force General Glenn Vangerk, the head of the Northern Command of the United States, in March 2022 stated the Senate Committee from the Armed Forces that Russian military intelligence has a large -scale presence in Mexico. "I would like to point out that the largest part of the game members in the world is now in Mexico. These are Russian intelligence staff, and they are watching their ability to influence the US opportunities and access to the US," Vangerk said.
Following the comments of Vanger, which made a full -scale invasion of Ukraine shortly after Russia began to expand its presence at the Embassy in Mexico City, receiving accreditation from Mexican power. Answering the questions about General's comments, Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he had no information about it and that Mexico is a "free, independent, sovereign country.
" Although Mexico has developed large trade relations with the United States for decades, it has traditionally tried to avoid complete compliance with Washington's foreign policy and maintained friendly relations with Russia and Cuba. Russian spies and their American informants have a long history of work in Mexico.
In 1940, the Kremlin began the persecution of one of its revolutionary leaders and communist ideologues, Leo Trotsky, removed from power after a quarrel with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Trotsky, who at some point should have become a successor to Vladimir Lenin as a leader of the Soviet Union, lived in fleeing, moving from the country to the country until he got a job in Mexico. But on August 20, 1940, Trotsky released the Spanish Communist in his personal office, whom he considered a friend.
The visitor, Ramon Merkader, hid a short -cut ice corner under the jacket. He was seriously injured by Trotsky, who died of wounds the next day. After Merkader he went to Moscow, and then to Cuba, where he died. But they were buried in the Kuntsev Cemetery in Moscow. John Sifer, who worked in the CIA's secret service for 28 years, said Russia has always sent its US agents to Mexico. "For decades, if Americans have been in contact and spyed for Moscow, they have been told to go to Mexico City.
The conditions for Russian intelligence in the United States are difficult," Sifer said. In the 1970s, Christopher Boysa, a college student who worked at Trw's Aerospace Company in the rich suburbs of Los Angeles, and his school friend Andrew Dolton Lee was found guilty of transferring the secrets of American satellites to Soviet. For more than two years, Lee went to Mexico City to send secret information to agents at the Soviet Embassy and raise money for himself and boys.
Their business became the theme of the book and the Hollywood movie "Falcon and the Snowman". Jim Nicholson, a high -ranking CIA, in 1997 for the transfer of secrets to Moscow, served his sentence for espionage when he tried to use his son to receive his "pension" payments from Russian agents in Mexico. His son was eventually arrested and convicted in 2010, and his father was convicted for the second time.
Two years ago, a well -known Mexican scientist Hector Cabrera Fuentz found himself guilty that Russian agents attracted him to watch the USA government inhabiting in Miami. Fuentes led a double life with two families on two continents, and Russian spies used it to force Fuenttes to cooperate.
According to former intelligence staff, unlike the United States, where Russian intelligence is under close attention of the FBI, and the consulates are closed, Mexico offers Moscow a convenient and less risky platform to supervise agents in the United States and other operations. "It is a very favorable environment for the work of the Russians," said Douglas London, a retired senior operational employee of the CIA and the author of the memoirs "Creeping".
According to him, the Russians are likely to use Mexico's proximity, but at the same time relative security, which is beyond the reach of US law enforcement agencies, to support both US agents and Russian officers who operate under "deep cover" in the United States.
According to London and other former CIA staff, an American agent who works for Russian intelligence can travel back and forth across the US and Mexico border and meet with Russian curators to receive money, report on the work done, replenish stocks and undergo training methods 'and other espionage skills. Former intelligence staff said Russian intelligence could also take advantage of Mexico's proximity to pursue Putin's political enemies in the United States.
The Russians will probably not be interested in trying to try to cross the southern border with migrants illegally, London said. "They want any trips to be honest, look clean, they are invisible," he said. However, according to other former intelligence staff, Russian intelligence services will be able to work with cross -border criminal networks, if it meets a specific mission and if they are ready to go to a much higher risk.
Former intelligence officers said that part of the game of the game is to prepare possible sabotage operations in the event of a war with the United States, and Mexico could become a practical basis for such emergency action plans. According to Kolbe, the idea of the presence of a large Russian spy bastion in Mexico is also useful as a propaganda instrument to exaggerate Moscow's capabilities and feed the perception of the allegedly "uncontrolled border".
US officials are also concerned about Russia's attempts to manipulate an information landscape in Mexico. Russia has expanded its state media agency RT in Mexico and conducted a large -scale advertising campaign for the channel. In April, the Russian ambassador to Mexico published a false report by Russian state media, which stated that the United States was recruiting member members of Mexico and Colombia to send them to Ukraine.
This unfounded report has been picked up by some Mexican news organizations. We will remind, in early June in Mexico there were elections, as a result of which was elected President of Claudia Sheinbaum. Vladimir Putin greeted politics, calling the country a "traditionally friendly partner of Russia. " The Russian President was invited to the inauguration, which should take place on October 1, and assured that he would not be arrested under the International Criminal Court Order.