📋 Tender Overview
Two years ago, the United States and Mexico came together to reaffirm the importance of our collaboration as partners and develop a shared vision for how our countries would enhance security cooperation in the twenty-first century. The result of that effort was the comprehensive and innovative Bicentennial Understanding for Safety, Public Health, and Safe Communities in the United States and Mexico. This Understanding, based on mutual trust and respect for the sovereignty and independence of each nation, guides our cooperation in the face of common challenges.
The Bicentennial Understanding recognizes that many of the threats we face today are multidimensional and cannot be overcome by either country alone. Together, the United States and Mexico will intensify our efforts to combat illicit drug trafficking, particularly synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and its precursor chemicals; trafficking in illicit arms; trafficking in persons and smuggling; and transnational criminal groups that threaten the safety of communities on both sides of our border. This includes strengthening our efforts to address irregular migration in our region. Our countries understand the urgent need to dismantle transnational criminal organizations that traffic in illicit arms and drugs or smuggle people, profiting from the desperation of people driven from their homes by crime, violence and instability. As neighbors, partners, and friends, the United States and Mexico are jointly addressing these challenges by implementing solutions that reflect our shared values, including respect for the rule of law, protection and defense of human rights, intolerance of corruption, and zero impunity.
At the 2023 High-Level Security Dialogue, Cabinet officials and other senior officials from the United States and Mexico assessed the progress we have made through the Bicentennial Understanding and discussed new plans, programs, and actions to protect our people, prevent cross-border crime, and prosecute criminal networks. We also pay tribute to the memory of the brave men and women of both countries who have lost their lives in the pursuit of peace and justice.
Protecting Our People
Over the past year, the United States and Mexico have worked together to strengthen the capacity of institutions tasked with promoting safe communities and access to justice. We have partnered to protect human rights, including improving protections for human rights defenders; to prevent gender-based violence; and to increase forensic capacity to identify victims of disappearances and trafficking in persons.
Mexico has created the Commission for the Attention to the Crime of Intentional Homicide (CONAHO) to strengthen homicide investigations and arrest priority targets. As set out in its National Public Security Strategy, Mexico is also addressing the causes and origins of violence, promoting actions that reduce related risk factors, such as inequality. Mexico's new public security paradigm prioritizes creating opportunities to prevent young people from becoming victims of criminal groups. One example is Mexico's Peace Builders program, through which representatives of the Mexican government have visited young people in the 50 municipalities with the highest number of homicides, offering scholarships and job training to prevent them from being recruited by criminal organizations. In addition, in 15 of Mexico's 2,741 municipalities with the highest rates of femicide, Mexico is strengthening its prevention efforts and actions to combat violence against women.
Both the Biden and López Obrador administrations have taken significant steps to reduce drug use. The Office of the President of Mexico is conducting an intensive media campaign reaching more than 30 million families, especially adolescents, to prevent the use of synthetic drugs. In the past year, the U.S.-Mexico Binational Panel of Experts on Mental Health, Substance Use and Addiction continued to develop joint public awareness campaigns on the risks of fentanyl and other illicit synthetic drugs. Through this bilateral work, the United States and Mexico have developed public health materials for the Spanish-speaking population in the United States to be delivered through "Ventanillas de Salud" at Mexican consulates throughout the country. These materials will provide clear information on prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery resources for those facing substance use and addiction problems.
Preventing Cross-Border Crime
Since 2022, the United States and Mexico have redoubled efforts to prevent cross-border crime. We have disrupted and dismantled illicit drug, arms and human trafficking networks, as well as violent gangs, through enhanced joint investigations, priority target prosecutions, significant arrests and seizures of firearms, cash, fentanyl and other illicit drugs and their precursor chemicals.
To maintain the high pace of our joint response to the especially devastating impact of synthetic opioids and gun-related violence on our communities, on March 9, 2023, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador hosted a U.S. delegation led by the White House National Security Advisor, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, with the participation of senior officials from the Departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security. Both countries aimed to intensify and expand cooperation to combat illicit fentanyl production, trafficking of high-caliber weapons and ammunition to Mexico, and transnational organized crime. High-level discussions on fentanyl, in particular, continued during the first and second meetings of the Canada-Mexico-U.S. Fentanyl Trilateral Committee, held on April 14 and July 25. The Fentanyl Trilateral Committee will meet again on the sidelines of the North American Leaders' Summit this winter.
