Russians recruiting Mexican youth as agents of influence

Dolia Estévez 

The Russian Embassy in Mexico is currently recruiting young members of the Morena ruling party as agents of influence to further disrupt U.S.-Mexico relations by pressuring Mexico to join the BRICS despite President Claudia Sheinbaum rejection. Russian recruit Damaris Hoyos, a 28-years Morena militant, traveled to Moscow to meet with Senior diplomat Sergei Ivanovich Kislyak, former Ambassador to Washington and First Vice-president of the Committee on International Affairs of the Council of the Russian Federation (Russian Senate). Hoyos said on Instagram that they talked about expanding the BRICS and building a “multipolar world.” U.S. intelligence officials have claimed that Kislyak is a leading Russian spy and spy recruiter. President Trump recently threatened to impose 100% tariffs on the BRICS countries if they create a currency to try to replace the “almighty dollar.” At their most recent summit in the Russian city of Kazan, the BRICS unveiled a currency featuring the Mexican flag alongside other flags of countries in the “global south” that Russia seeks to enlist. 

Damaris Hoyos was selected president of the Mexican chapter of the Center for Russia and Latin America Cooperation (CICRAL), inaugurated by Russian Ambassador to Mexico Nikolay Sonfinskiy at the embassy in June of 2024. Financed by the Kremlin, CICRAL´s mission is to promote the BRICS among young members of the Morena ruling party, students and young professionals. “We firmly believe that our generation has the task of contributing to the process of building a multipolar world and of making sure that the BRICS are not just a dream,” Hoyos wrote on X. Carlos Calles Marquina, also a Morena militant, was named secretary general. Last December he moderated a virtual conference of CICRAL to stress the “importance of the BRICS.” CICRAL also has chapters in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica. 

Hoyos was invited to travel to Russia for a “cultural, political and social immersion” experience. In St. Petersburg, she attended an international congress of “BRICS municipalities.” While in Moscow, in addition to Kislyak, Hoyos also met Sergey Nalobin, director of the office of information and media at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “I could not pass up the opportunity to tell him how angry we have made the Mexican media that has sold out to the Yankees, so much so that they ran a piece on us in Latinus. Our fight against Russophobia throughout the continent is beginning to bear fruit,” Hoyos wrote on Instagram. The Latinus investigative piece that Hoyos denounced to her bosses in Moscow exposes her ties with the Russians. From his position as director of the “digital diplomacy” unit, Nalobin is responsible for creating the messaging that the ministry and the Russian embassies spread on social media. 

A true defender of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, Hoyos frequently travels to Venezuela. She recently met in Caracas with a delegation from United Russia, Putin's party that Russian intelligence compares to Morena. The repressive governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua have expressed interest in joining the BRICS. But despite her populist affinity with them, President Sheinbaum knows Mexico's priorities well. Replacing the dollar for the BRICS phony currency is not one of them. Another thing is the pro-Russian Morena cadres.