rolando herrera
Reform Agency
Saturday, April 15, 2023 | 13:42
Mexico City.- A broad representation of officials from the Cabinet of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador offered in Washington to reinforce customs surveillance to stop the entry of chemicals to produce fentanyl and, in counterpart, the Joe Biden administration will supervise the crossing of arms from the United States.
The Government of Mexico made a commitment to the United States to strengthen surveillance at air and maritime customs to prevent the chemical precursors with which fentanyl is produced from entering the country.
For its part, the Biden Administration agreed to create a working group to monitor weekly the reduction of the crossing of firearms from the United States to Mexico.
“Mexico requested a special group that dedicates itself week by week to seeing at the crossing points that the flow of arms into Mexico is substantially reduced. This has already been discussed a lot with the United States, but now a very specific measure has been proposed to them. and they said yes,” explained Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.
Last Thursday, a delegation of Mexican officials led by the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, met with their US counterparts and Canadian officials, to agree on a strategy to reduce the trafficking of fentanyl and firearms.
“The bilateral meeting had two short-term objectives: to drastically reduce the arrival of chemical precursors to our country, as well as the trafficking of high-powered firearms from the United States,” said the Secretariat for Citizen Security and Protection. (SSPC) in a statement.
To reduce the entry of chemical precursors, which come mainly from Asia, the Mexican government will increase surveillance at the country’s customs.
“The teams of the Ministry of National Defense will be increased to 287 for the supervision of land customs, in order to prevent the development of illegal activities, the illegal trafficking of arms and synthetic drugs.
“Exhaustive supervision of containers with chemical substances by the Ministry of the Navy and Cofepris in seaports will be doubled, with the aim of controlling the flow of chemical precursors and ensuring those that are prohibited through periodic and random inspection and sampling” , detailed the dependency.
The Attorney General of the Republic will also create a Special Unit dedicated to dealing with synthetic drug trafficking for the investigation of this crime.
Officials of the two governments, said the SSPC, will have weekly meetings to evaluate progress in the established commitments, strengthen the exchange of information and action strategies in each country.
Who came?
Through Mexico
– Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez
– Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard
– Attorney General of the Republic, Alejandro Gertz Manero
– Secretary of National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval
– Secretary of the Navy, Jose Rafael Ojeda
– Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer
– Director General of the National Intelligence Center, Audomaro Martínez
– Head of Cofepirs, Alejandro Svarch
– Head of the Commission Against Addictions, Gady Zabicky
– Ambassador of Mexico to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma
For the United States
– National Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
– Fiscal Merrick Garland
– Director of the National Drug Control Policy, Rahul Gupta
– Deputy Attorney Lisa Monaco
– Under Secretary for Homeland Security John Tien
– United States Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar
– Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Narcotics, Todd Robinson
– Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Rachel Poynter
