---
title: "Sinaloa's governor returns to office while facing US charges"
description: "Ruben Rocha went back to work on Friday after 112 days of leave, saying he returns with a clear conscience. A US indictment unsealed in April accuses him of protecting a Sinaloa Cartel faction in exchange for help winning election. He has not been convicted of anything."
category: "World"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/world
author: "Jasmine Howard"
published: 2026-08-21T22:39:09.000Z
updated: 2026-08-21T22:39:09.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/sinaloa-s-governor-returns-to-office-while-facing-us-charges
tags: ["mexico", "sinaloa", "organized-crime", "us-mexico-relations", "courts"]
---
# Sinaloa's governor returns to office while facing US charges

Ruben Rocha went back to work on Friday after 112 days of leave, saying he returns with a clear conscience. A US indictment unsealed in April accuses him of protecting a Sinaloa Cartel faction in exchange for help winning election. He has not been convicted of anything.

Ruben Rocha resumed his duties as governor of Sinaloa on Friday, [112 days after taking leave on May 1](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/mexico-governor-ruben-rocha-returns-to-office-despite-us-criminal-charges). He said he returned [ "with a clear conscience and my head held high, with the power of the truth on our side"](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/mexico-governor-ruben-rocha-returns-to-office-despite-us-criminal-charges).

The charges he denies are serious and remain outstanding. It should be stated plainly at the outset that they are allegations: Rocha has not been tried or convicted, and the case against him has not been tested in any court.

## The accusation

[A US indictment unsealed on April 29 named ten Mexican officials and businessmen, among them a senator, a state public security secretary, the mayor of Culiacan and police commanders](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/mexico-governor-ruben-rocha-returns-to-office-despite-us-criminal-charges). [US prosecutors allege Rocha protected the Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for help winning election](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/mexico-governor-ruben-rocha-returns-to-office-despite-us-criminal-charges).

The Chapitos are the faction associated with the sons of Joaquin Guzman, and the split between them and a rival wing of the cartel has driven the violence that has consumed Culiacan and much of Sinaloa since 2024. An allegation that the state's own governor was aligned with one side of that conflict is, if true, about as grave a charge as can be made against a sitting Mexican official.

## Two Mexican governments, two positions

Rocha said [Mexico's Attorney General's Office had found "not a shred of evidence"](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/mexico-governor-ruben-rocha-returns-to-office-despite-us-criminal-charges) supporting the US case.

His own government did not endorse that reading. [Mexico's interior ministry said investigations remain open into all ten people named by the US Justice Department](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/mexico-governor-ruben-rocha-returns-to-office-despite-us-criminal-charges), which is a direct contradiction of a claim of exoneration.

President Claudia Sheinbaum's position has been about process rather than guilt. She called on the United States to produce its evidence, saying no Mexican citizen [ "should be denied a fair trial. If they are accused, there must be evidence to support that accusation"](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/mexico-governor-ruben-rocha-returns-to-office-despite-us-criminal-charges).

That is a defensible line for a head of state to take, and it also sidesteps the harder question, which is whether a governor under indictment abroad should be running a state at the center of the conflict the indictment describes.

## What a US indictment does and does not do

An indictment filed in a US court has no force inside Mexico by itself. It permits US authorities to seek an arrest if the person enters their jurisdiction, and it can support an extradition request, which is a separate process requiring Mexican courts to act.

Whether such a request has been made in this case has not been reported. Absent one, and absent Mexican charges, there is no legal mechanism obliging Rocha to stay away from his office, which is why his leave was a political decision rather than a legal requirement and why ending it was equally his own.

The practical situation is now that Sinaloa is governed by a man the United States accuses of cartel collusion, whose own federal government says the matter is still under investigation, and who says he has been cleared. All three of those can be reported as fact because each is a matter of record. Only one of them can ultimately be right.

## Sources

- [Mexico Governor Ruben Rocha returns to office despite US criminal charges](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/mexico-governor-ruben-rocha-returns-to-office-despite-us-criminal-charges)