Development: On 15 August Mexican and US authorities announced new security agreements regarding the fight against organised crime.
Significance: Alberto Elías Beltrán, Mexico’s acting attorney general who headed up the Mexican delegation to the US, described as “unprecedented” the new agreements which include plans to target financial structures of criminal groups operating in both countries and to set up a new Chicago-based law-enforcement group comprising officials from both countries. The announcement comes as questions persist as to the future of Mexico-US bilateral relations on security (as well as other areas) ahead of President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s assumption of office in December.
- Among the strategy agreements announced yesterday, officials revealed plans to target value chains of organised crime as well as to cooperate “on all levels” to arrest the flow of weapons from the US towards Mexico.
- Accompanied by a delegation which included Felipe de Jesús Muñoz Vázquez, Mexico’s deputy attorney general for the specialised investigation of federal crimes unit (SEIDF), Beltrán met Anthony Williams, chief of operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Brian McKnight, the special agent in charge of the DEA division in Chicago; and Chicago’s police superintendent, Eddie Johnson.
- Officials from both countries have already announced their first priority – locating Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera, the leader of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) durg trafficking organisation (DTO), who has become Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord following the arrest and extradition to the US of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera, the former leader of the Sinaloa/Pacífico DTO, who is now awaiting trial in the US. Yesterday the authorities announced a reward of MS$30m (US$1.57m) for information leading to Oseguera's arrest.
- López Obrador has promised to implement radical changes to security policy with the aim of reducing violence, proposing negotiated peace and amnesties rather than hard-line policies which critics blame for perpetuating violence.
Looking Ahead: Yesterday López Obrador’s pick for public security minister, Alfonso Durazo, said that targeting the finances of organised crime networks would form part of the incoming government's security policy, but he criticised the strategy of capturing top DTO leaders – a strategy he said “hasn’t produced the best results”.
