Mexico and US Deal Forcefully with
Common Threats
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 | Press Release
The Presidency reports that at
the official Los Pinos residence, Mexican President Felipe
Calderón received Mexican and US officials who
took part in the Second Top Level meeting on Cooperation
against Organized Transnational Crime.
During the meeting, Foreign Affairs
Secretary Patricia Espinosa Cantellano and State Secretary
Hillary Clinton informed the Mexican president of this
morning's conversations regarding various aspects of bilateral
cooperation on this issue. They noted that the meeting
reflects the high priority both governments placed on
bilateral cooperation against transnational organized
crime, on the basis of four strategic areas requiring
priority attention: a) The dismantling of the criminal
organizations acting in both countries; b) the strengthening
of the institutions responsible for implementing justice;
c) the development of a safe, competitive border for the
21st century and d) the reinforcement of social cohesion
in communities in the two countries.
For his part, President Calderón
said that Mexico and the US are dealing firmly with the
common threats posed by organized crime in either country,
in the belief that international cooperation is the most
effective instrument for achieving success. In this respect,
he hailed President Barack Obama's commitment to boosting
the exchange of information and intelligence as well as
the coordination and cooperation between both countries
and stressed the importance of follow-up.
Given the scope of the challenge,
President Calderón stressed the need for the two
countries to redouble their efforts to combat transnational
organized crime, by operating on either side of the shared
border, particularly as regards arms and money trafficking.
They should also strengthen their strategies to control
demand and the treatment of addicts from a public health
perspective that will complement efforts to implement
justice. Shared responsibility, said the President, must
be achieved in the efforts to intercept drugs, weapons
and cash and the dismantling of criminal groups, and the
prevention and control of the consumption of illegal drugs.
Mexican participants in the Second
Round of the Top Level group included: Foreign Affairs
Secretary, Ambassador Patricia Espinosa Cantellano; Interior
Secretary, Fernando Gomez Mont Urueta; National Defense
Secretary, General Guillermo Galván Galván;
Navy Secretary, Admiral Francisco Saynez Mendoza; Public
Security Secretary, Genaro García Luna; Attorney
General, Arturo Chávez Chávez; Directors
of the Center for Research and National Security, Guillermo
Valdés Castellanos; of General Customs Administration,
Juan José Bravo; the Financial Intelligence Unit,
Luis Urrutia; Director of the Tax Administration System,
Alfredo Gutiérrez; of the National Banking and
Assets Commission, Guillermo Babatz; Jorge Tello, Technical
Secretary of the National Security Council; Under-Secretary
of North America, Julián Ventura, and Mexican Ambassador
to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan.
US attendees included: Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, Janet A. Napolitano, Secretary
of Homeland Security; Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense;
John Brennan, Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland
Security and Counterterrorism.; Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant
Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs.; Gary
Grindler, Acting Deputy Attorney General; Paul Stockton,
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense; Michele
M. Leonhart, Acting Administrator of the DEA. (DEA); Gil
Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy; Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence,
and Adam Szubin, Director of Treasury's Office of Foreign
Assets Control, and US Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual.
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