US Promises ’Fresh Strategies’ and to Work Closely with Mexico to Refocus Anti-Drug Efforts Nancy Montoya - Arizona Public Media
go to original May 19, 2017

This is the complete video from the State Department of the May 18 joint press conference that happened after the United States and Mexico held a meeting called "Strategic Dialogue on Disrupting Transnational Criminal Organizations." (Latino USA)

The United States and Mexico have pledged to step up efforts to jointly take down transnational crime organizations trafficking opioids, which are causing deaths on both sides of the border. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his Mexican counterpart Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said in a joint news conference in Washington D.C. that each side must own up to their role in creating the major binational crisis.

Mexico’s drug enforcement agency reports that cartels have increased the production of illegal synthetic opioids by 400 percent in the past five years.

“America must also confront the reality that we are the market. We Americans must own this problem,” Tillerson said.

And the problem is an epidemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Since 2002, the death rate from opioid overdoses has almost tripled. At the Nogales port of entry, opioid seizures coming from Mexico have increased, Border and Customs official Teresa Small said.

...The Mexican government said that in the past 10 years around 20,000 Mexican soldiers have been killed fighting the cartels. In the U.S., in 2015, almost 20,000 deaths were attributed to opioid overdose.

Read the rest at Arizona Public Media

Related: Mexico, Colombia Meetings Show US Security Policy on Unsure Footing (Insight Crime)

Related: 'We Are the Market': Tillerson Faults US for Evils of Mexico's Drug Trade (CNN)

Related: Trump Says Border Wall Will Stop Drug Cartels That Have ‘Literally Taken Over Towns and Cities’ (The Washington Times)

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