Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP / Getty Images
The Administration of President Joe Biden confirmed to this newspaper that it endorsed Mexico deploying intelligence agents in United States territory, as part of the new security and anti-cartel framework.
A spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House said that this new plan is reciprocity to the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador for allowing US agents in Mexico, as DEA officers.
“We appreciate that Mexico allows the deployment of our law enforcement agents to collaborate with the Mexican authorities,” he said. “We are pleased to host Mexican criminal justice officers to work with us and penetrate criminal organizations in the U.S”.
Although there are no details of how many officers will be allowed or how the coordination with US authorities will be, the Biden Administration also confirmed that the strategy is part of the Bicentennial Framework , which Mexican authorities refer to as an “understanding”, which replaces the Mérida Initiative against cartels.
“Protecting the citizens of our nation is the most important thing we do and we do it better together,” said the spokesman. “We appreciate that, through the Bicentennial Framework, the López Obrador Administration has refocused Mexico on working closely with the US to combat all forms of transnational crime.”
It was the Mexican ambassador to the US, Esteban Moctezuma, who revealed to the Mexican newspaper Milenio the deployment of Mexican agents in US territory, but he did not elaborate or confirm the deal.
The Bicentennial Understanding, as it is known in Mexico, seeks to apply new forms of confront the drug cartels, such as attacking the roots of the problem with social programs aimed at young people, to prevent them from joining organized crime.
However, USA maintains its strategy against cartel leaders, for which it requires agents in Mexico , the White House said.
“To achieve our objectives, both governments need recruits in the field of action”, it was reported.
According to Ambassador Moctezuma, one of the objectives of the Mexican agents will be to reduce or stop arms trafficking.