Incoming Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will review security cooperation with US
Last month, Lopez Obrador said he would cancel the planned purchase of eight military helicopters from the US as part of cost-cutting measures
Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will review security agreements with the United States, including the US$2.9 billion Merida Initiative, and wants to refocus aid to social and economic projects, a senior security aide said on Friday.
“When the time comes, we will review initiatives such as Plan Merida,” said Alfonso Durazo, who will head a new public security ministry when the government takes office on December 1.
The decade-old Merida Initiative directs aid from US agencies to Mexico to fight organised crime and drug trafficking while training security forces and supporting programmes to improve Mexico’s shaky rule of law.
Mexico remains the principal highway for cocaine to the United States and has become the top source of heroin, which is fuelling a surge in opioid addiction in the United States.
This financial year, the US Congress set aside US$145 million for Mexico under the Merida Initiative to help fight the flow of opioids into the United States.
Military collaboration is not the best way of facing the security problems in our country
It is not clear whether Mexico will seek to change the focus of Merida away from security assistance, but Lopez Obrador has already asked US President Donald Trump for US help in economic development in southern Mexico and Central America, his preferred approach to fighting illegal immigration and drugs.