Mexican governor steps down temporarily after US indictment

Gonzalo Soto, Bloomberg News on May 2, 2026

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The Mexican governor charged by the U.S. over alleged drug-related crimes stepped down temporarily while investigations are underway.

Sinaloa governor Ruben Rocha Moya said in a video message posted Friday night on social media that he’d asked his state’s local Congress for a leave of absence as Mexican authorities consider the accusations.

“I inform the people of Sinaloa that I presented to the local Congress a temporary leave of absence,” he said. “I do it out of profound republican conviction.”

Yeraldine Bonilla Valverde was appointed interim governor by the Sinaloa state legislature in a special vote on Saturday morning. She had previously served as the state’s secretary of government and is considered a close associate of Rocha Moya.

The Mexican attorney general’s office said in a statement earlier that it had requested from the foreign ministry all extradition documents and information provided by U.S. authorities regarding Rocha Moya and nine other officials indicted by the Department of Justice.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced the unsealing of an indictment Wednesday. They allege that leaders of the Sinaloa cartel helped get Rocha Moya elected by kidnapping and intimidating his opposition in exchange for his promise to protect them while they distributed drugs into the U.S.

In the video, Rocha Moya, 76, rejected all the accusations against him, as he did when they were announced, and said that his move will allow Mexican authorities to perform a better investigation.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said that her administration won’t protect anyone who’s committed a crime, and that if there’s evidence against the accused, the Mexican justice system must take action.