MEXICO – The Mexican government will present a new security plan to the United States because it considers that cooperation so far “has not worked,” Marcelo Ebrard, head of the Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE), reported on Wednesday.
The Mexican Foreign Minister revealed that he raised the idea during the virtual meeting he had last Friday with Antony Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States.
“Drug trafficking has not been reduced, so it has to start from a critical vision of what has been done to make it better, that Mexico is preparing and Blinken told me: ‘well, we are going to hold the meeting in as long as we are ready, ‘”said Ebrard.
The statements come a day after the publication of a report from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that reaffirms Mexico as “the greatest threat” of drug trafficking to the United States.
In particular, the 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment report alerts the cartels of Sinaloa, the Gulf, Juarez, the Northeast, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Los Zetas, Guerreros Unidos, La Familia Michoacana, Los Rojos and the organization Beltran Leyva.
Addressed by the press after the inauguration of a passport office in Coyoacán, in the south of Mexico City, the foreign minister denied that this issue has generated “noise” in the bilateral relationship.
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He also indicated that it is up to the Ministry of Public and Citizen Security (SSPC) to prepare the proposal.
“The only thing that was said in the meeting on Friday, that I had with Secretary Blinken, is that in terms of security, what has been done in both countries has not worked because consumption continues to rise, weapons and homicides continue to rise,” reiterated.
Security cooperation was strained after the arrest of Salvador Cienfuegos, a former head of the Mexican Army, arrested in Los Angeles in October but returned to Mexico without charge in November following the claim of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The Mexican president and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) accused the DEA of “fabricating crimes” against Cienfuegos, who was going to face drug trafficking charges.
By order of the leftist leader, the Mexican Congress approved in December an urgent reform to the National Security Law to restrict the work and eliminate the immunity of foreign security agents in the country, with a special dedication to the DEA.
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However, Ebrard indicated that security cooperation was not an issue in the first virtual bilateral meeting that López Obrador and the president of the United States, Joe Biden, had this Monday.
“We have not spoken yet, the security issue was pending, because they are organizing their scheme and Mexico is preparing what their proposal is going to be,” said the foreign minister.
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