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Mexico, Colombia Meetings Show US Security Policy on Unsure Footing

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05.21.2017 at 03:54pm

Mexico, Colombia Meetings Show US Security Policy on Unsure Footing by Mimi Yagoub and Tristan Clavel, InSight Crime

A recent visit by top US officials to Mexico and a meeting between the presidents of Colombia and the United States in Washington, DC have provided further evidence that the US security strategy in Latin America under the new administration has yet to find its footing.

On May 18, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly met with Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Videgaray Caso and Interior Secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong to discuss future collaboration against organized crime and drug trafficking.

The officials recognized the need to tackle the drug trade on both sides of their shared border, and for the United States to focus more heavily on reducing drug consumption within the country.

The United States "must also confront the reality that we are the market," Tillerson said.

"But for the seemingly endless demand by addicted users and the successful recruitment of young and vulnerable new users, there would be no market … We Americans must own this problem. It is ours," he added.

However, Tillerson did not propose a domestic addiction treatment strategy. Rather, he proceeded to affirm that tackling drug violence and consumption required "stopping the cross-border flow of drugs" and "aggressively confronting the cartels operating in the United States and Mexico."…

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