US, Mexico diplomats meet to discuss drugs, crime, migration
Top US and Mexican diplomats and other officials met in Washington for security talks that focused on drugs, crime and irregular migration.
Called the “US-Mexico High-Level Security Dialogue,” the talks are taking place for a second time under a framework that was adopted a year ago.
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A major focus was the production and distribution of fentanyl.
“We are working to disrupt both the supply and the demand of fentanyl,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“Just last month, the DEA concluded a four-month operation that resulted in the removal of 36 million lethal doses of fentanyl from American communities in Mexico.”
Earlier this year, the Biden administration released its national drug strategy, which focuses on addiction and drug trafficking. In June, Congress passed gun safety legislation which made firearms trafficking a federal offense for the first time.
“We have deepened our law enforcement cooperation, we’ve deepened our information sharing, and we are working together more effectively, both to deal with drug interdictions, but also to deal effectively with arms trafficking,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
During the press conference, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard held up two maps, one showing the localities in Mexico where firearms manufactured mainly in the US have been found, with the other map showing the US localities where the firearms that ended up in Mexico were sold.
“This is the weapons pandemic that we have in Mexico,” Ebrard said in Spanish. “If we reduce this, then violence in Mexico will continue to go down,” he said.
“We have worked to enhance cooperation and bilateral information sharing on illegal firearms investigations,” said Garland.
Blinken admits that fighting the cartels in Mexico is an uphill battle.
“I would disagree with the proposition that there have not been results,” Blinken said. “There have been, there are, but they’re also not sufficient,” he said.
“And that’s exactly what we recognized and talked about today. How do we intensify these efforts?”
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