Mexico, U.S. forging new security framework
MEXICO CITY — High-level delegations from Mexico and the United States were at work Friday on building a new security framework for the bilateral relationship that they hope will govern how the two countries cooperate on a broad range of issues.
The so-called U.S.-Mexico Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities seeks to move beyond the 13-year-old Merida Initiative that focused on building Mexico’s crime-fighting capabilities and rule-of-law projects.
“It’s time for a comprehensive approach to our security cooperation, one that will see us as equal partners in defining our shared priorities, tackle the root drivers of these challenges like inequity, like corruption, and focus not only on strengthening law enforcement, but also public health, the rule of law, inclusive economic opportunities,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.
Mexico Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard put it more succinctly: “Goodbye Merida; Bicentennial agreement.”
The governments’ joint declaration devoted considerable space to treating drug addiction — especially opioids — and its societal effects in the public health context, a significant departure from Merida’s emphasis on the criminal justice system.
The U.S. pledged to devote more resources to identify and treat people affected by opioids, and Mexico committed to working with the United Nations to launch a program to better manage shipping containers to limit the importation of chemical precursors for synthetic drugs like fentanyl.
Mexico seized an estimated 1.3 tons of the synthetic opioid last year as the U.S. recorded 93,000 drug overdose deaths.
The governments committed to targeting importers of chemical precursors for fentanyl and methamphetamine, their financial networks and secret labs.
They also said they would work together to reduce the trafficking of guns, a high priority for violence-wracked Mexico, and to provide more opportunities to youths to make it harder for criminal organizations to recruit them.
“We need to deal with the violence, dismantle the transnational criminal organizations and focus on prevention with the goal of creating the conditions for a culture of peace, while we work hand-in-hand to address the fundamental causes of crime,” the joint statement said.
Mexico’s Public Safety Secretary, Rose Icela Rodriguez Velazquez, said, “For many years, the issue of Mexico’s security has been addressed from the point of view that it’s only measured by the use of force; now we are combating the causes that originate that violence with social programs, intelligence and coordination, listening to men and women in their towns, their municipalities and communities.”
Immigration is expected to be a key topic of the dialogue. Lopez Obrador has been saying for months that Mexico cannot continue to simply detain migrants and try to contain them in the southern part of the country, far from the U.S. border.
He has asked the U.S. to invest in two of his signature social programs to relieve some of the economic pressure people feel to migrate.
Mexico has also been pressing for the U.S. to do more to stop illegal guns from pouring in from the U.S. The guns fuel Mexico’s organized crime violence, exacerbating a public safety issue that Lopez Obrador’s government has been unable to address adequately.