# Mexico City as an espionage hub > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Mexico City as an espionage hub," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mexico-city-as-an-espionage-hub/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's assessment of Mexico City as one of the world's principal centres of international espionage, alongside Vienna, London, Paris and Washington, driven by a gargantuan American embassy that Russian services target from next door, and his reading of why Mexico simply ignored a dossier of suspected Russian officers handed over by the Biden administration.* - **Comparable cities:** Vienna, London, Paris, Washington - **Why:** The size of the American embassy and what passes through it - **The liaison act:** Passing names of hostile officers to a friendly service - **The dossier:** Handed to Mexico under Biden; not acted on - **Kiriakou's explanation:** Mexico is sick and tired of American treatment - **Trigger for the increase:** The war in Ukraine **Mexico City as an espionage hub** is John Kiriakou's assessment of the Mexican capital, given in December 2025 in response to reporting that Mexico was hosting a substantial Russian military intelligence presence and had done nothing about an American request to expel it.[1] ## The liaison act Kiriakou's first move was to normalise the American request rather than the Mexican refusal. Passing the names of KGB, GRU or SVR officers, *"or whatever they're calling themselves these days"*, to a friendly liaison service is an ordinary event, and the CIA does it all the time.[1][2] ## Why the city matters The reason Mexico City is different is that it is *"a hub of international espionage"* in the class of Vienna, London, Paris and Washington.[2] The cause he gives is not geography but architecture. The American embassy in Mexico City is gargantuan, and so much happens there that hostile services in the city are, for the most part, targeting the embassy itself.[2] How they do that is set out in his account of [the embassy local hire](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-embassy-local-hire). ## Why the dossier went nowhere Rall's summary of the reporting was that the Mexicans had variously claimed never to have received the dossier, to have found it too vague, or to have lost it, one official implying it had been recycled.[1] Asked why, Kiriakou's answer was about the relationship rather than the file. *"I think honestly the Mexicans are just sick and tired of us."* When Washington passed the names, he said, it probably also told Mexico to wrap all of them up and expel them, and said it was waiting, and the answer was probably that Mexico had other things to worry about.[3][4] He then made the wider point himself. No American president, Democrat or otherwise, ever goes on television to talk about the cooperation the Mexican government provides. It is thankless and one-way; they are very cooperative and *"we talk about them like dogs."*[4] His formulation of the resulting Mexican position was that they are a real country with national pride, and they drag their feet accordingly.[5] ## The Ukraine effect Asked whether the Russian presence had ramped up after the invasion of Ukraine, the United States using Ukraine as a proxy to spy on Russia from its own border, and Moscow returning the compliment through Mexico, Kiriakou's answer was unqualified: *"I I believe that's that's the case, yes."*[6] He also placed the tradition well back, agreeing that it runs to the 1950s and the description of Mexico City as the Vienna of Latin America.[1] ## See also - [The embassy local hire](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-embassy-local-hire) - [Mexican 9 Month Work Visas](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mexican-9-month-work-visas) - [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. Trump to Europe: DROP DEAD (2025-12-10), at 27:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPOKa97jQg&t=1644s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-10-deprogram-ted-rall-trump-to-europe-drop-dead/ 2. Trump to Europe: DROP DEAD (2025-12-10), at 28:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPOKa97jQg&t=1709s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-10-deprogram-ted-rall-trump-to-europe-drop-dead/ 3. Trump to Europe: DROP DEAD (2025-12-10), at 36:47. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPOKa97jQg&t=2207s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-10-deprogram-ted-rall-trump-to-europe-drop-dead/ 4. Trump to Europe: DROP DEAD (2025-12-10), at 37:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPOKa97jQg&t=2238s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-10-deprogram-ted-rall-trump-to-europe-drop-dead/ 5. Trump to Europe: DROP DEAD (2025-12-10), at 37:48. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPOKa97jQg&t=2268s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-10-deprogram-ted-rall-trump-to-europe-drop-dead/ 6. Trump to Europe: DROP DEAD (2025-12-10), at 31:04. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClPOKa97jQg&t=1864s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-10-deprogram-ted-rall-trump-to-europe-drop-dead/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mexico-city-as-an-espionage-hub/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt