The governments of Mexico and the United States are making progress in drawing up the so-called Bicentennial Understanding, a new strategy against organized crime that includes 26 objectives in three key areas: social programs on health, attack on criminal organizations and judicial prosecution.
This Monday, the Government of President Joe Biden announced the objectives that it has worked with the Administration of Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador since last October , when the High-Level Dialogue on Security took place.
“The United States and Mexico are committed to transforming cooperation to better protect the health and safety of our citizens and promote the development of the most vulnerable… prevent criminal organizations from harming our countries and prosecute and bring criminals to justice,” says the Biden Administration.
Highlights that the new plan, that its constitutes the Merida Initiative, will start as part of the bicentennial celebrations of the bilateral relationship between the two countries, having “a shared responsibility” as a guideline.
“The action plan is driven by an interest of national security in both countries to stop the criminal groups that traffic drugs and illicit weapons”, it was added,
There is also a focus against the smuggling of migrants and the exploitation of people through treats her
The program is officially called “United States-Mexico Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Communities Safe”.
The revelation of the objectives occurred after a virtual meeting convened by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, whose representative was the Undersecretary of State for Civil Security, Democracy and Human Rights. , Uzra Zeya, but also had the participation of the main director of the National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere, Juan González.
“Both governments approved bilateral objectives and agreed to take actions…including continuing to work towards the development of indicators to jointly evaluate the impact”, advanced the Department of State.
Undersecretary Zeya highlighted bilateral cooperation to address shared security priorities, such as reducing drug production, trafficking and consumption and mitigating associated harm, as well as attacking the finances of criminal groups and tackling arms trafficking.
Almost half of the objectives refer directly to the cartels and that includes the persecution of leaders and the exchange of information to reduce their financial operations.
It should be remembered that among the actions , the Biden Administration will allow the deployment of Mexican agents in US territory who, according to Mexican Ambassador Esteban Moctezuma, would focus on arms trafficking.
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