• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

U.S., Mexico prepare new security deal to replace Merida Initiative

October 7, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

October 7, 2021

By Dave Graham and Drazen Jorgic

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The United States and Mexico are hashing out a security arrangement to replace the Merida Initiative that will focus on exchanging information and the root causes of violence, in a bid to soothe bilateral friction, Mexican government sources and U.S. officials said.

Key elements of the new agreement will be up for negotiation on Friday during U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Mexico City, where the Biden administration will hold its first U.S.-Mexico High-Level Security Dialogue.

Security cooperation between the neighbors suffered a major blow last October, when U.S. anti-narcotics agents arrested former Mexican defense minister Salvador Cienfuegos, infuriating the Mexican government. Cienfuegos was released but the arrest strained ties and cut down security cooperation.

Two Mexican government officials said the new agreement will replace the multibillion-dollar Merida Initiative, a plan that was launched in 2007 and initially gave U.S. military aid to Mexico in the fight against drug cartels.

“The Merida Initiative is dead,” said one of the Mexican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The officials noted the new accord would signal that the two neighbors had moved past the diplomatic storm unleashed by Cienfuegos’ arrest on drugs charges at Los Angeles International Airport.

Washington is calling the new initiative the U.S.-Mexico Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities, according to senior Biden administration officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

After Friday’s talks, Washington would develop an action plan by Dec. 1 and then expects to have a three-year bilateral framework and plan agreed by Jan. 30 next year, the officials said.

Mexico’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price, asked in a media briefing on Thursday whether Merida was dead, said Washington believed security cooperation was “due for an updated look.”

“The Merida Initiative helped Mexico strengthen rule of law and counter-narcotics capacity,” Price said. “We want to see to it that those gains are preserved, (and) that that cooperation is deepened.”

CAUSES OF VIOLENCE

Worked out over the last few months, the new deal did not foresee Mexico receiving military equipment or funds, and was instead focused on information exchange, inter-agency cooperation and training of personnel, the Mexican official said.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sees the Merida Initiative as tainted by its association with previous governments, and for financing security equipment in the 2000s. In recent years, the program supported justice reform, immigration infrastructure and drug demand reduction.

The new accord would make clear that Mexico and Washington shared responsibility for addressing chronic cross-border problems such as illicit arms trafficking and the demand for illegal drugs in the United States, said the official.

    That would be a win for Mexico, but it means the agreement also implied Mexico was accepting that the United States’ security concerns were its own concerns, the official said.

    The new accord’s goals in tackling violent crime and arms trafficking were likely to be announced gradually, not on Friday, the official said. For now, the two sides would focus on explaining how they would work together under it.

A second government source, who is a senior Mexican security official, confirmed the Merida agreement has been “stopped,” and said a key component of the new agreement will be programs that tackle the “root causes” of violence in Mexico.

Cienfuegos’ capture took the Lopez Obrador administration by surprise, and gave fuel to Mexico’s long-standing concerns about U.S. anti-narcotics agents impinging on its sovereignty. It prompted Mexico’s Congress to pass legislation to make it harder for U.S. agents to work on Mexican soil.

U.S. officials have complained that efforts to battle powerful cartels were obstructed because of the fraying in relations, and the inability of U.S. agents to move freely around Mexico.

The senior Mexican security official said while there was room for negotiation, the U.S. agents would not be able to operate in the same manner as before Cienfuegos’ arrest and the passing of the new legislation.

“That’s out … because the president really believes in sovereignty,” he said.

(Reporting by Dave Graham and Drazen Jorgic; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis in Palo Alto, California, and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler and Bill Berkrot)

Source Link U.S., Mexico prepare new security deal to replace Merida Initiative

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. Republican Cheney named as vice chair of U.S. House panel investigating Jan. 6 attack
  2. Point raises $46.5 million for its premium debit card
  3. Onin is trying to fix event planning by combining calendar and chat
  4. S&P 500 on track for worst day in four months

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • The Bizarre 1997 Experiment That Made A Frog Levitate
  • There’s A Very Good Reason Why October 1582 On Your Phone Is Missing 10 Days
  • Skynet-1A: Military Spacecraft Launched 56 Years Ago Has Been Moved By Persons Unknown
  • There’s A Simple Solution To Helping Avoid Erectile Dysfunction (But You’re Not Going To Like It)
  • Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS May Be 10 Billion Years Old, This Rare Spider Is Half-Female, Half-Male Split Down The Middle, And Much More This Week
  • Why Do Trains Not Have Seatbelts? It’s Probably Not What You Think
  • World’s Driest Hot Desert Just Burst Into A Rare And Fleeting Desert Bloom
  • Theoretical Dark Matter Infernos Could Melt The Earth’s Core, Turning It Liquid
  • North America’s Largest Mammal Once Numbered 60 Million – Then Humans Nearly Drove It To Extinction
  • North America’s Largest Ever Land Animal Was A 21-Meter-Long Titan
  • A Two-Headed Fossil, 50/50 Spider, And World-First Butt Drag
  • Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Losing Buckets Of Water Every Second – And It’s Got Cyanide
  • “A Historic Shift”: Renewables Generated More Power Than Coal Globally For First Time
  • The World’s Oldest Known Snake In Captivity Became A Mom At 62 – No Dad Required
  • Biggest Ocean Current On Earth Is Set To Shift, Spelling Huge Changes For Ecosystems
  • Why Are The Continents All Bunched Up On One Side Of The Planet?
  • Why Can’t We Reach Absolute Zero?
  • “We Were Onto Something”: Highest Resolution Radio Arc Shows The Lowest Mass Dark Object Yet
  • How Headsets Made For Cyclists Are Giving Hearing And Hope To Kids With Glue Ear
  • It Was Thought Only One Mammal On Earth Had Iridescent Fur – Turns Out There’s More
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version