Mexican authorities and the CIA refuted a CNN report alleging direct involvement of CIA operatives in fatal attacks against cartel targets within Mexico over the past year.

President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday accused the U.S.-based news organization of attempting to “hurt the government and the people of Mexico.”

CNN reported Tuesday that the CIA facilitated a targeted assassination of a member of the Sinaloa cartel on the highway outside Mexico City, fueling a firestorm in Mexico. The New York Times later reported that Mexican forces carried out the attack and the CIA provided planning and support.

Sheinbaum called the CNN report a “lie.” Asked about the New York Times report during her morning press briefing, she called it “a fiction the size of the universe.”

Liz Lyons, a spokesperson for the CIA, also lambasted the CNN report, posting on X that “this is false and salacious reporting that serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk.”

CNN did not…