Victor Ballinas and Andrea Becerril
Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, January 30, 2022, p. 4
The United States accepted that Mexico send to its territory between 20 and 23 agents who are going to concentrate on arms trafficking, an issue on which the Foreign Ministry is working together with the security cabinet, reported the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, during the plenary meeting of the senators of Morena.
He explained that this is possible due to the relationship of mutual respect and reciprocity between governments. He even considered that Mexico can win the lawsuit filed against 11 companies that manufacture weapons in the neighboring country to the north.
Participating from Honduras, via a digital platform, in the eighth plenary meeting of Morena’s senators, the foreign minister said that in the face of the bets of those who want Mexico to have a disagreement with the United States, or those who opted in the past for the submission, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador maintains a relationship of mutual respect with the administration of Joe Biden and there are results on several fronts.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that Mexico can win the lawsuit filed against 11 companies that manufacture weapons in the United States, since it is essential to reduce arms trafficking to curb violence in our country.
It is an issue, he said, that Mexico put on the negotiating table and will be taken into account as a priority, as part of the Bicentennial Understanding.
During his speech before senators from Morena, the Social Encounter Party and the Labor Party, the foreign minister explained that he decided to file this legal appeal against one of the most powerful industries in the United States. Why are we doing this?
He himself replied: because we think we can win the case and have an impact in reducing the traffic (of arms) to Mexico
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Ebrard affirmed that this country It is assuming that this Mexican priority has the same rank as the priorities that they have, with respect to fentanyl, which also worries us a lot, of course. And so the understanding is starting to work
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The foreign minister participated remotely from the Octavio Paz room, of the Mexican embassy in Honduras, and said that he was there because he attended the swearing-in of the first president of that country, Xiomara Castro, by order of President Andrés Manuel López Workshop.
Referring to the presence of more than 20 Mexican agents in the United States, he explained that the principle of reciprocity applies. He said that the presence in Mexico of US agents and of Mexicans in the United States is regulated in the National Security Law that the Senate approved in 2020.
He recognized that there are also differences in the bilateral relationship on issues such as the rules of origin in the automotive industry, because we do not have the same interests. But a panel will be held that the Ministry of Economy has already requested. Can there be differences in other things? Well yes. If a subsidy is going to be given to those who acquire electric vehicles that are mainly manufactured in the United States
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