U.S. Congressional Delegation Visit to Mexico
August 25, 2022
Institutional Context
In October 2021, the United States and Mexico created the Bicentennial Framework for Security. Building on past security cooperation efforts, this Framework establishes a long-term approach for binational actions to pursue the safety and security of both societies. This mechanism is a joint binational effort to protect human rights, share information and best practices, prosecute those who violate the law, and regularly and transparently evaluate the impact of those efforts. The Framework comprises three goals: protecting people, preventing transborder crime, and pursuing criminal networks.
U.S. Congressional Delegation Visit to Mexico
Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, received a delegation of US Democratic congresspeople at the facilities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on August 25th; made up of Connecticut Senator, Chris Murphy; Illinois Congressman, Jesús García; and Missouri Congresswoman, Cori Bush. In addition to the Foreign Minister, the Mexican delegation was made up of the Head of the North America Unit, Roberto Velasco; the General Director of Special Affairs, María de Haas; the Coordinator of Political Affairs for North America, Cristina Planter; and the Legal Deputy Consultant, Salvador Tinajero.
Several topics on the bilateral agenda were addressed including: migration, economic relations, cultural ties and security cooperation. On security cooperation, particularly, the relevance of combating arms trafficking was highlighted as a priority issue on the shared agenda.
In the framework of the Bicentennial Understanding, both governments have made progress in confronting the illicit trafficking in firearms by increasing the exchange of information and the professionalization of Mexican officials at the federal and state levels, both in terms of ballistic analysis and in the registration and tracking of firearms from the United States. In this regard, the visiting delegation presented the progress in the fight against arms trafficking in their country, where a review of U.S. legislation regulating cross-border trafficking in firearms and related penalties has been carried out to improve law enforcement.
