International
U.S. officials discuss fentanyl and migration in Mexico
October 5 |
Senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, were in Mexico on Wednesday for talks with Mexican officials on drug trafficking and a humanitarian crisis on the U.S. southern border.
Blinken will be joined by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. The U.S. delegation will meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Rosa Icela Rodriguez, Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection.
The meeting comes at a time of growing tension between the two nations. The United States is in the midst of an opioid addiction epidemic that claims more than 100,000 lives each year. Most of the deaths are attributable to fentanyl, a potent narcotic trafficked across the border by Mexico-based drug cartels.
At the same time, the southern border of the United States faces a daily flood of migrants, often in the thousands, who use Mexico as a jumping-off point for their efforts to enter the United States, either illegally or to seek asylum as refugees.
The dual problem has led some U.S. political leaders to call for aggressive action, with several Republican candidates for the presidential nomination advocating military intervention.
Fentanyl charges
In an indication of the global nature of the fentanyl problem, Garland held a press conference at the Justice Department on Tuesday and announced that charges had been filed against eight Chinese companies and 12 individuals for their role in selling fentanyl precursors – the chemical compounds. from which the drug is synthesized – to buyers in Mexico.
It was the second time since June that the United States has brought charges against Chinese companies supplying fentanyl precursors to criminal organizations in Mexico.
“We know who is responsible for poisoning the American people with fentanyl,” Garland said. “And we know that this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends in the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China.”
As of August of this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized more than 25,500 pounds of fentanyl entering the U.S., nearly double the amount seized in the same period last year. The amount of fentanyl seized in the US has increased by 800% since 2019, according to the Department of Homeland Security, with most of it coming from Mexico.
Unlike other drugs, such as cocaine and marijuana, whose raw materials must be grown on acres of farmland, fentanyl labs are small and easy to hide. And because the drug is so potent (50 times more potent than heroin), it is also easier to transport.
In addition, the United States and Mexico are looking for ways to cooperate on the issue of human migration. In recent years, the flow of economic migrants and asylum seekers through Mexico to the U.S. border has become a flood.
After plummeting to fewer than 500,000 during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, attempts to cross the southern border, whether legally or illegally, have skyrocketed in recent years. In 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials encountered 1.7 million people attempting to cross the southern land border. That number increased to 2.4 million in 2022, and the numbers for 2023 are on track to be even higher.
Mexican resistance
Among other actions, U.S. officials are expected to ask their Mexican counterparts to deploy more law enforcement personnel to interdict shipments of fentanyl precursors and shut down laboratories where the drug is produced.
The reception is likely to be cool. The Mexican government, including López Obrador, has openly criticized U.S. politicians who campaign on drug and immigration issues, accusing them of making their country a scapegoat for the United States’ own problem.
López Obrador has referred to the opioid epidemic in the United States as a result of “social decadence.”
International
U.S. and Mexico Reach Deal to Address Water Deficit Under 1944 Treaty
The United States and Mexico have reached an agreement to comply with current water obligations affecting U.S. farmers and ranchers and for Mexico to cover its water deficit to Texas under the 1944 Water Treaty, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement.
The department уточified that the agreement applies to both the current cycle and the water deficit from the previous cycle.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump accused Mexico of failing to comply with the water-sharing treaty between the two countries, which requires the United States to deliver 1.85 billion cubic meters of water from the Colorado River, while Mexico must supply 432 million cubic meters from the Rio Grande.
Mexico is behind on its commitments. According to Washington, the country has accumulated a deficit of more than one billion cubic meters of water over the past five years.
“This violation is severely harming our beautiful crops and our livestock in Texas,” Trump wrote on Monday.
The Department of Agriculture said on Friday that Mexico had agreed to supply 250 million cubic meters of water starting next week and to work toward closing the shortfall.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, quoted in the statement, said Mexico delivered more water in a single year than it had over the previous four years combined.
Trump has said that if Mexico continues to fall short of its obligations, the United States reserves the right to impose 5% tariffs on imported Mexican products.
Mexico’s Deputy Foreign Minister for North America, Roberto Velasco, said that a severe drought in 2022 and 2023prevented the country from meeting its commitments.
International
Several people shot in attack on Brown University campus
Several people were shot on Saturday in an attack on the campus of Brown University, in the northeastern United States, local police reported.
“Shelter in place and avoid the area until further notice,” the Providence Police Department urged in a post on X. Brown University is located in Providence, the capital of the state of Rhode Island.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that he had been briefed on the situation and that the FBI was on the scene.
At 5:52 p.m. local time (11:52 p.m. GMT), Brown University said the situation was still “ongoing” and instructed students to remain sheltered until further notice.
After initially stating that the suspect had been taken into custody, Trump later posted a second message clarifying that local police had walked back that information. “The suspect has NOT been apprehended,” the U.S. president said.
International
Colombia says it would not reject Maduro asylum request as regional tensions escalate
The Colombian government stated on Thursday that it would have no reason to reject a potential asylum request from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro should he leave office, as regional tensions persist over the deployment of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean since August.
“In the current climate of tension, negotiations are necessary, and if the United States demands a transition or political change, that is something to be assessed. If such a transition results in him (Maduro) needing to live elsewhere or seek protection, Colombia would have no reason to deny it,” said Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio in an interview with Caracol Radio.
However, Villavicencio noted that it is unlikely Maduro would choose Colombia as a refuge. “I believe he would opt for someplace more distant and calmer,” she added.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro also commented on Venezuela’s situation on Wednesday, arguing that the country needs a “democratic revolution” rather than “inefficient repression.” His remarks followed the recent detention and passport cancellation of Cardinal Baltazar Porras at the Caracas airport.
“The Maduro government must understand that responding to external aggression requires more than military preparations; it requires a democratic revolution. A country is defended with more democracy, not more inefficient repression,” Petro wrote on X (formerly Twitter), in a rare public criticism of the Venezuelan leader.
Petro also called for a general amnesty for political opponents and reiterated his call for forming a broad transitional government to address Venezuela’s prolonged crisis.
Since September, U.S. military forces have destroyed more than 20 vessels allegedly carrying drugs in Caribbean and Pacific waters near Venezuela and Colombia, resulting in over 80 deaths.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that attacks “inside Venezuela” will begin “soon,” while Maduro has urged Venezuelans to prepare for what he describes as an impending external aggression.
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