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US Secretary of State Anthony Blinkentravels to Mexico this Wednesday to talk with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradorand other authorities on issues of illicit trafficking and consumption fentanylas
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinkentravels to Mexico this Wednesday to talk with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradorand other authorities on issues of illicit trafficking and consumption fentanylas well as an increase migration pressure on a common border.
Joe Biden government wants Mexico to extradite more drug traffickers and dismantle more clandestine laboratories producing fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has caused a record number of overdose deaths in the United States.
The visit also comes after U.S. Border Patrol arrested its largest number of undocumented immigrants in August.
Blinken will fly from Texas and land around 16:45 local time (2245 GMT) at Felipe Angeles airport on the outskirts of Mexico City, one of the symbolic buildings of Lopez Obrador’s government.
During his two-day visit, the head of American diplomacy will be accompanied by a high-level delegation consisting of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; Attorney General Merrick Garland and White House Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall.
Also traveling are the head of the State Department for Latin America, Brian Nichols, as well as the head of the same drug control agency, Todd Robinson.
The official agenda begins this Wednesday with a new bilateral meeting between Blinken and Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena, who already met last week in Washington.
A ministerial meeting on migration is also planned, which could be attended by foreign ministers from other Latin American countries.
The U.S. delegation will meet with its Mexican counterpart on Thursday for a high-level security dialogue to discuss drug trafficking, arms trafficking and migration.
A press conference between Blinken and Bárcena is expected at the end, and the secretary of state will later conclude his visit with a meeting with López Obrador at the National Palace.
Tensions over fentanyl have complicated bilateral relations this year.
Mexican cartels make the drug from chemicals purchased in China and then ship it to the United States, where more than 70,000 people died from drug overdoses last year, Washington said.
On the other hand, Lopez Obrador has publicly denied that fentanyl is produced in Mexico and insisted that it comes directly from China, despite the fact that his government has dismantled several clandestine laboratories producing the drug.
However, there are signs of cooperation, given that Mexico has joined, unlike China, the global coalition created by the United States against fentanyl.
Additionally, in September, the Mexican executive extradited Ovidio Guzman, the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, accused of trafficking fentanyl from the Sinaloa Cartel, to the United States.
Washington is now calling for the capture and extradition of Chapo’s three other sons, whom he calls “Los Chapitos.”
Mexico, for its part, insists the United States must end the trafficking of thousands of guns that fall into the hands of organized crime each year, exacerbating violence in the Latin American country.
Another troubling development at the border is immigration, where the situation has not stabilized since the lifting of Title 42, the deportation policy used during the Covid-19 pandemic, in May.
The United States, which arrested 233,000 people at the border in August, insists the country’s doors are not open to illegal immigrants and that the only way to migrate is through a limited humanitarian permit program that is applied for online.
The phenomenon has caused the suspension of freight trains in Mexico in recent weeks due to the presence of thousands of migrants on the tracks and the proliferation of camps along the Rio Grande River, which serves as a natural border.
Mexico’s foreign minister said last week in Washington that her government was exploring the possibility of launching deportation flights to Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela for migrants stranded in Mexican cities bordering the United States. (EFE)
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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