U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation

Council on Foreign Relations, 5/16/12

The Council on Foreign Relations has held a panel to discuss the current security situation in Mexico, and how the United States can help combat shared security threats.

The panel featured Alejandro Hope, Project Director, ‘Less Crime, Less Punishment’ project, Instituto Mexicano para la Competividad (IMCO) and México Evalúa; Shannon K. O’Neil, Douglas Dillon Fellow for Latin America Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Ginger Thompson, Domestic Correspondent, New York Times; and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s own Eric L. Olson, Senior Associate of the Mexico Institute.

Video of the panel may be viewed here, at the Council of Foreign Relations.

Most Mexicans want U.S. to take a bigger role in fighting violence, poll finds

The Dallas Morning News, 5/13/12

Weary of the drug-stoked violence that has swept their country and buffeted the Texas border, more than half of Mexicans want the U.S. to take a more direct role here in battling organized crime. Some even support deployment of U.S. troops and drug agents into Mexico, where more than 50,000 people have died in drug violence since 2006.

Those are the main findings to emerge from a new poll of Mexicans, who appear poised to again embrace the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which they turned out of office 12 years ago after more than seven decades in power. The poll, conducted for The Dallas Morning News, its Spanish-language publication Al Día and the Mexican newspaper El Universal, found voters were not only ready to reverse course politically but also to ease up on old suspicions of their northern neighbor.

“That’s a little shocking given the history between the United States and Mexico,” said Eric Olson, a security expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. “But the political reality is none of the politicians, particularly presidential candidates, will stand up and ask for more U.S. involvement. “

Read more…

Considering New Strategies for Confronting Organized Crime in Mexico

The Mexico Institute, 3/29/12

In light of the April 2^nd meeting between Presidents Obama and Calderon and Prime Minister Harper, the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute is happy to present a new publication on U.S.-Mexico security cooperation by Senior Associate Eric L. Olson.

Joe Biden Mexico Visit: Calderon Asks Vice President To Stop U.S. Arms, Money Flow

The Huffington Post, 2/6/12

Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that Mexico’s three main presidential candidates share a vision of continued close cooperation with Washington, and used his brief visit south of the border to also knock down talk of drug legalization in the region.

Biden’s two-day trip to Mexico and Honduras comes amid calls by many of the region’s leaders to discuss decriminalizing drugs as a way to ease a vicious war on cartels that has left Latin America bloodied. “It’s worth discussing, but there is no possibility the Obama/Biden administration will change its policy on (drug) legalization,” he said after meeting with President Felipe Calderon.

But the main purpose of his visit was to meet with the contenders in Mexico’s July 1 presidential elections to get a feel for future U.S.-Mexico relations.

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Biden to meet with Mexico’s president

CNN,3/5/12

Vice President Biden

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was set to meet with Mexico’s president Monday as part of a two-day visit to the region. The leaders will discuss priorities the countries share, Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Biden’s visit comes a week after U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano met with Mexico’s interior minister in the nation’s capital and told reporters that the drug war there “is not a failure,” and that it was only a matter of time before the leader of Mexico’s powerful criminal organization falls.

“It took us 10 years to find Osama bin Laden and we found him,” Napolitano said. “And you know what happened there. I’m not suggesting the same thing would happen with (alleged Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo”) Guzman, but I am suggesting that we are persistent when it comes to wrongdoers and those who do harm in both of our countries.”

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Security Cooperation Resources: Analysis, Reports and Other Resources related to the Drug War

January 1, 2012

U.S.-Mexico security cooperation has increased dramatically as a byproduct of the Mérida Initiative, a security cooperation initiative between the United States and Mexico. The Initiative was designed to strengthen cooperation and build trust among countries in the region to better combat drug trafficking and organized crime. The following are analysis, reports and other resources on U.S.-Mexico security cooperation on the drug war.

• Romanian weapons modified in U.S._scourge of Mexican drug war, Rick Schmitt and Rick Young, November 2011
• Drug Violence in Mexico_Data and Analysis through 2010, Special Report by Viridiana Ríos and David A. Shirk, February 2011
• Los homicidios y la violencia del crimen organizado, Alejandro Poiré, January 2011
• Is_the_policy-budget Mismatch to Blame, Carnevale Associates LLC, September 2009
• The Merida Initiative and Central America, The Brookings Institution, May 2009
• Narco, terrorismo y guerilla, Foreign Affairs in Espanol, 2008
• At a Crossroads_ Drug Trafficking, Violence and the Mexican State, WOLA, November 2007

Security Cooperation Resources: Office of National Drug Policy Control Report

January 1, 2012

U.S.-Mexico security cooperation has increased dramatically as a byproduct of the Mérida Initiative, a security cooperation initiative between the United States and Mexico. The Initiative was designed to strengthen cooperation and build trust among countries in the region to better combat drug trafficking and organized crime. The following are official documents on U.S.-Mexico security cooperation and the Mérida Initiative.

• ONDCP: National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy                                               
  June 2009

Security Cooperation Resources: U.S. Department of Justice report

January 1, 2012

U.S.-Mexico security cooperation has increased dramatically as a byproduct of the Mérida Initiative, a security cooperation initiative between the United States and Mexico. The Initiative was designed to strengthen cooperation and build trust among countries in the region to better combat drug trafficking and organized crime. The following are official documents on U.S.-Mexico security cooperation and the Mérida Initiative.

• Review of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center
  U.S. Department of Justice report, June 2010

Security Cooperation Resources: Letters of Intent Between The National Conference of Attorneys General of Mexico and the Conference of Western Attorneys General of the United States

January 1, 2012

U.S.-Mexico security cooperation has increased dramatically as a byproduct of the Mérida Initiative, a security cooperation initiative between the United States and Mexico. The Initiative was designed to strengthen cooperation and build trust among countries in the region to better combat drug trafficking and organized crime. The following are official documents on U.S.-Mexico security cooperation and the Mérida Initiative.

• Letters of Intent Between The National Conference of Attorneys General of Mexico and the Conference of Western Attorneys General of the United States Regarding Efforts to Combat Organized Crime, August 1-2, 2009

Letter of Intent – Firearms Trafficking

Letter of Intent – Organized Crime

Letter of Intent – Narcotics Trafficking

 

Security Cooperation Resources: Report to the Members of Committee on Foreign Relations

January 1, 2012

U.S.-Mexico security cooperation has increased dramatically as a byproduct of the Mérida Initiative, a security cooperation initiative between the United States and Mexico. The Initiative was designed to strengthen cooperation and build trust among countries in the region to better combat drug trafficking and organized crime. The following are official documents on U.S.-Mexico security cooperation and the Mérida Initiative.

• Common Enemy, Common Struggle: Progress in U.S.-Mexican Efforts to Defeat Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Report to the Members of the Committee on Foreign Relations, May 2010