Seoul Gazette - Border wall, drugs tensions loom over US-Mexico security talks

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador criticized the announcement by Washington that it would add to the barrier that was a signature policy of Donald Trump, calling it a "setback."

"It does not solve the problem. We must address the causes" of migration, he told reporters shortly before meeting Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the National Palace.

Blinken was accompanied by a delegation including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland, who said earlier that the talks would address "urgent threats" facing the two countries.

"Disrupting the violent cartels manufacturing and trafficking fentanyl will be at the top of that list," he said.

The United States saw a record of around 110,000 drug overdose deaths between March 2022 and March 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fentanyl accounted for some two-thirds of them.

"Fentanyl remains the number one killer of young people in the United States," US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, adding that tackling smuggling of the synthetic opioid was one of Blinken's top priorities.

"We need to take steps with our Mexican partners to crack down on trafficking, and that would include the destruction of labs in Mexico," he said.

Last month Mexico extradited Ovidio Guzman Lopez, the son of imprisoned Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, to the United States to face narcotics charges.

The US Justice Department is pursuing three more of Guzman's sons, known as the "Chapitos."

US authorities are also targeting Chinese companies accused of cartel links. This week they announced sanctions on a China-based network accused of producing and distributing precursor chemicals.

- Security overhaul -

At an earlier round of security talks in Mexico two years ago, the two countries agreed to overhaul their fight against drug trafficking.

After more than a decade during which the United States provided military firepower, technical support and security training to Mexican law enforcement, they vowed to put more emphasis on tackling the root causes of drug trafficking through measures such as supporting economic development and addressing addiction.

More recently, Lopez Obrador has angrily rejected calls by Republican politicians in the United States to send the US military to fight drug cartels.

Mexico is plagued by cartel-related bloodshed that has seen more than 420,000 people murdered since the government deployed the military in the war on drugs in 2006.

Lopez Obrador argues that investing in development projects in the region would help counter not only drug trafficking but also migration flows.

His foreign minister told the United Nations last month that Mexico was overwhelmed by people coming from violence-wracked Central America and Venezuela.

Stephanie Brewer, director for Mexico at the Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy group, said there was a risk that "short-term measures that violate human rights" might be announced during Blinken's visit.

Countries must "prioritize the protection of refugees and displaced people" fleeing violence and poverty, Brewer said.

More than 8,200 migrants have died or disappeared in the Americas since 2014, most of them while trying to reach the United States via Mexico, according to the International Organization for Migration.

C.Noh--SG