Governor Rocha Moya Takes Temporary Leave, Culiacán Mayor Gámez Steps Down — Political Crisis Deepens After US Indictment

Two days after the historic US federal indictment, Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya posted a video on May 2, 2026 announcing he was taking a temporary leave of absence from the governorship. In the video, Rocha Moya denied all charges as 'false and malicious' and stated he was stepping aside temporarily to prevent the legal proceedings from interfering with the state's governance. He explicitly characterized the indictment as politically motivated by the Trump administration and an attempt to destabilize Mexico. Hours after Rocha Moya's announcement, Culiacán Mayor Juan de Dios Gámez Mendívil — also named in the same indictment — announced his own resignation from the mayoralty. Legal analysts immediately noted a critical consequence: by voluntarily stepping down from his elected position, Gámez Mendívil lost the blanket prosecutorial immunity (fuero constitucional) that had previously shielded him from domestic criminal proceedings. The city comptroller became interim mayor. The dual resignations triggered an urgent convening of the Sinaloa state legislature to formally process Rocha Moya's leave request and name an interim governor. Both officials continued to publicly deny any link to the Sinaloa Cartel, Rocha Moya insisting he was simply protecting the state's governance while fighting the charges through legal channels. The US bipartisan reaction was immediate: legislators praised the resignations as a first step but demanded formal impeachment and cooperative extradition proceedings. The political collapse of Sinaloa's two senior elected officials — the governor and the capital's mayor — within 48 hours of the indictment marks an unprecedented rupture in Mexico's cartel-political nexus.