The U.S. and Mexico

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Biden and López Obrador have talked fentanyl and US-Mexico migration. They pledged solidarity

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pledged Friday to work side-by-side to confront illicit fentanyl trafficking into the U.S. and to manage the growing number of migrants traveling north to the border between their nation.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-immigration-migrants-mexico-fentanyl-d39861ee91b91656be23e8d1068ec993?

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Drug lords go on killing spree to hunt down corrupt officers who stole shipment in Mexico’s Tijuana

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A recent killing spree in the Mexican border city of Tijuana could have been lifted from a TV script: enraged drug lords hunting down corrupt police officers who stole a drug shipment.

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-tijuana-drug-theft-officers-killed-9d4102b8b55f7e4f2c681c6c05056765?

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Did Drug Traffickers Funnel Millions of Dollars to Mexican President López Obrador’s First Campaign?

Years before Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected as Mexico’s leader in 2018, U.S. drug-enforcement agents uncovered what they believed was substantial evidence that major cocaine traffickers had funneled some $2 million to his first presidential campaign.

https://www.propublica.org/article/mexico-amlo-lopez-obrador-campaign-drug-cartels?

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? Mexico takes China's crown

Data: U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis. Chart: Axios Visuals For the first time in 20 years, "made in Mexico" is outpacing "made in China." Mexico is now the top producer of goods shipped to the U.S., according to U.S. Census Bureau data released yesterday. Why it matters: The U.S.-Mexico relationship is often viewed through the far more contentious lens of immigration politics, Axios managing editor Javier E. David writes. But the new numbers show the two countries have hundreds of billions of reasons to remain on friendly terms. ? Between the lines: Increasingly unpredictable geopolitics — including increased tensions between Washington and Beijing — are making Mexico preferable to China for American companies. "When U.S. companies are looking for new suppliers in Latin America they are looking for resiliency and can't be affected by geopolitics or weather," Alfonso de los Ríos, CEO of Nowports, a digital freight forwarding startup, told Axios. ? By the numbers: Together, American consumers buy from three major foreign sources: Mexico, China and Canada. The U.S. absorbs more than $3 trillion worth of international goods a year. Those three countries account for more than a third of that total.

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Catholic bishops in Mexico say they negotiated for possible peace accord with drug cartel leaders

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Four Roman Catholic bishops met with Mexican drug cartel bosses in a bid to negotiate a possible peace accord, one of the bishops said, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday he approves of such talks.

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-bishops-peace-talks-drug-cartels-ae3054c5885de17229d401aae311ad5f?

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Mexico sends drug lord Caro Quintero and 28 others to the US as officials meet with Trump team  Mexico has sent 29 drug cartel figures, including drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the killing of a U.S. DEA agent in 1985, to the United States as the Trump administration turns up the pressure on drug trafficking organizations. Read more.

Why this matters: The unprecedented show of security cooperation comes as top Mexican officials are in Washington trying to head off the Trump administration’s threat of imposing 25% tariffs on all Mexican imports starting Tuesday.   Those sent to the U.S. Thursday were brought from prisons across Mexico. Among them were members of five of the six Mexican organized crime groups designated earlier this month by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration as “foreign terrorist organizations.”   The decision also threatens to upend an unwritten understanding — with notable exceptions — that Mexican drug lords would serve sentences in Mexican prisons where they were often able to continue running their illicit businesses.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: What to know about Trump’s tariff threats on Canada, Mexico and the EU   Doug Ford reelected as Ontario’s premier with mandate to fight Trump tariffs

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? Border drone war

Photo illustration: Allie Carl/Axios. Photo: David Swanson/Getty Images, Draganfly

On the U.S. side of the Southwest border, local law enforcement officials have begun using AI-programmed drones to locate drug traffickers and migrants, Axios' Russell Contreras writes. On the Mexico side, drug cartels are using their own drones to stake out desert areas in the U.S. to smuggle their products. Why it matters: The U.S. government — whose own patrol drones help create what it calls a "virtual wall" — has long fueled the tech war along the border. But now even small local agencies are stepping into this arms race against cartels and illegal immigration. ?️ The big picture: The drone wars are unfolding even as migrant traffic has dropped to its lowest levels in decades. They're being driven in part by staffing shortages in police and sheriff's departments, as well as cuts in federal aid that have limited traditional patrols. The number of U.S. law enforcement agencies using drones has jumped 150% since 2018, according to a report released this year. State of play: Suspected cartels in Mexico are flying thousands of drones over U.S. territory, Department of Homeland Security officials say. Steven Willoughby, deputy director of DHS's counter-drone program, told a Senate committee last month that cartel drones made more than 27,000 flights within 500 meters of the southern border during the last six months of 2024. He said the drones can fly for more than 45 minutes, reach more than 100 mph and carry more than 100 pounds. Some drones operated by cartels have dropped explosives on rival factions in Mexico, Willoughby said, although no such actions have been reported on the U.S. side.