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President Andrés Manuel López Obrador spoke with Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, White House National Security Advisor, about fentanyl, arms trafficking, and the decision of the President of the United States, Joseph Biden, to respect the sovereignty of Mexico. In a message on his social networks, the president shared images of the meeting held at the National Palace.
The head of the Executive was joined by the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez, and the Secretaries of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon; from National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval González and from the Navy, José Rafael Ojeda Durán, in addition to the head of the Unit for North America of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Velasco Álvarez.
On behalf of the US government, Ambassador Kenneth Salazar; US Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security John Tien; the United States Assistant Attorney General, Lisa Monaco; the director of the National Drug Control Office, Rahul Gupta; the senior director of Western Hemisphere Affairs of the National Security Council (NSC), Juan González; Special Presidential Advisor and Senior Director for Cross Border Issues (NSC), Katie Tobin; the military attaché of the United States embassy in Mexico, Andrew Leonard, and the security adviser minister at the United States embassy in Mexico, Tim Dumas.
During a meeting President Joe Biden and Lopez Obrador had in January, the two leaders also reviewed security cooperation under the Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safe Communities and discussed increased cooperation to prosecute drug traffickers and dismantle criminal networks, disrupt the supply of illicit precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, shut down drug laboratories, and prevent trafficking of drugs, arms, and people across our shared border.
The Bicentennial Framework, adopted at the inaugural meeting of the High-Level Security Dialogue in October 2021, continues to guide bilateral security cooperation. The United States and Mexico remain committed to transforming the cooperation to better protect the health and safety of the citizens, prevent criminal organizations from harming the countries, and pursue criminals to bring them to justice.
The Biden-Harris Administration has taken several domestic actions since October 2021 to implement our Bicentennial Framework goals. In April, the Administration released its National Drug Control Strategy, which focuses on two critical factors in the overdose epidemic: untreated addiction and drug trafficking.
In June, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety legislation the U.S. Congress has passed in nearly 30 years, which created a federal firearms trafficking criminal offense for the first time. On July 12, Presidents Biden and President Lopez Obrador committed to a multi-year joint border infrastructure modernization effort, noting that the U.S. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $3.4 billion to undertake 26 major modernization projects that include enhanced security features on the United States’ northern and southern borders. Mexico is also committed to investing $1.5 billion in border infrastructure.
