The US, Mexico To Discuss Security Topics in Bilateral Meeting

On Friday, the government of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) will meet a U.S. delegation headed by State Secretary Anthony Blinken to discuss possible ways to counteract the migration crisis and drug trafficking in their region.

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Currently, about 14,000 Haitian migrants are stranded in Mexican border crossings or shelters, where they wait for the U.S. authorities to process their asylum claims as provided by the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) that U.S. President Joe Biden reinstated.

"Coercive measures do not solve the migration crisis. Justice does," AMLO stated, stressing the need for creating work and welfare opportunities for migrants in their origin countries so that they are not forced to migrate.

To this end, he suggested Biden replicate the Mexican social program "Sowing Life" in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to give these countries’ farmers an income in exchange for planting and caring for trees on their plots.

In other remarks, Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said he would ask Blinken to end the Merida Initiative, a drug-fighting agreement signed in 2008 by President Felipe Calderon (2006-2012) and President George Bush (2001-2009).

"This initiative allows the deployment of U.S. security agents, helicopters, and military weapons to our territory,” Ebrad condemned and urged the Biden administration to respect the Mexican security policy.

The AMLO administration will also present US officials with ten tasks to address violence and homicides in both countries. Among these initiatives is using financial intelligence to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and fight arms trafficking.