Mexico, US to invest $4.2 billion to reinforce border

Tijuana, Mexico, May 12 (EFE).- The governments of Mexico and the United States announced Thursday they will invest $4.2 billion to strengthen the common border with advanced technology, infrastructure projects and special security measures.

Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said at a press conference in the border city of Tijuana that this investment comes under the Bicentennial Framework for Security cooperation, which includes 14 projects on the Mexican side.

There are six projects on the US side, which mainly concern technology to prevent the trafficking of arms to Mexico, and drugs, such as fentanyl, to US soil.

Ebrard noted that priority will be on the issue of safety, for which investment will be made in high technology, since it is currently unequal on both sides.

He added they intend “to be more effective at the border against fentanyl, drugs and weapons that go and come from both sides.”

“There are many projects, where the two presidents (Joe Biden of the US and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico) seek to create a period of transformation on the border between Mexico and the United States,” he said.

On his part, Todd D. Robinson, the US Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau of International Narcotics, said that one of the priorities of the agreement will be to stop the arms trafficking to Mexico.

The focus will also be on preventing drug entry into the US, where 107,000 people overdosed in 2021, half of them from substances such as fentanyl, according to official US data.

Robinson underlined that with this agreement they will reinforce and further organize the joint efforts between the Mexican and American governments. EFE

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