Mexico and the United States began work Tuesday on the new framework that will govern their security relationship going forward and replaces the Merida Initiative, which had focused on building up Mexico’s capabilities to battle the drug cartels.
The U.S.-Mexico Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities seeks to move beyond the Merida Initiative.
Working groups composed of representatives of the armed forces, homeland security and justice agencies of both countries gathered in Mexico in what Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard termed the “birth certificate” of the new agreement.
