| | |  Americas & Beyond 
US, Mexico Extend Mérida Plan
 The News
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February 20, 2010
| | Mexican Public Safety Sec. Genaro García and US Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano meet Thursday on border security. | |
This week, the United States and Mexico signed in Mexico City a declaration of principles to improve control over drugs and arms trafficking on the US-Mexican border.
The agreement, signed by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Mexican Secretary of Public Safety Genaro García Luna, seeks to “extend” the Merida Initiative, a joint strategy launched in 2007 to combat drugs trafficking, U.S. authorities explained.
“This declaration will enable us to better protect both countries from violent drug cartels, transnational drug trafficking, dirty money and arms trafficking, while facilitating legal transportation and trade,” Napolitano said.
One of the main objectives of this partnership is to share classified information in order to obtain precise and specific results in a coordinated way. The agreement also seeks to produce “reliable” reports on criminal activities in order to increase the exchange of information on arrests, confiscations, investigations, crime trends and risks in a simultaneous and interactive way.
Other goals are to coordinate efforts to localize illegal points of entry at the border, effectively control drug dealing turfs and improve surveillance.
In an interview broadcast by Televisa on Wednesday night, Napolitano stated that “the cooperation between Mexico and the United States has never been as strong... and I can tell you this because I have been working on trans-border issues for almost two decades now, first as Attorney General of Arizona, then as governor of the same state and now as secretary of Homeland Security.”
Napolitano said that both countries had common interests in combatting drug trafficking, as the cartels find their “roots” in Mexico but have “tentacles” in U.S. communities.
Napolitano, who ended her visit on Thursday, said she is against the legalization of drugs to fight trafficking and considers this strategy an “easy response to a complicated to problem that is not viable in the long run.”
Several Mexican public figures, including writer Carlos Fuentes and former President Ernesto Zedillo, have expressed their position in favor of de-penalizing the use of drugs to defuse the spiral of violence in Mexico.
Napolitano also signed a protocol with Interior Secretary Fernando Gómez Mont to simplify and improve coordination and communication between the two governments in case of disasters or in situations threatening the national security of both countries.
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