Re-Building a Complex Partnership: - The Outlook for U.S.-Mexico Relations under the Biden

Mexico and the United States have a unique window of opportunity to complement and harmonize their investments in economic development and rule of law in the region to address the drivers of migration over the long term. [...] Although collaboration has failed to achieve the more ambitious and integral aspects of the initiative, particularly in light of the more defensive and nationalist attitudes advanced by both countries over the past four years, the evolution of the Mérida Initiative points to the importance of working towards a common understanding of security that puts citizens’ security at the center. [...] Measured in terms of the number of extraditions from Mexico to the United States, kingpin targeting was effective: from a total of 211 individuals extradited under Vicente Fox (2000-2006), the number went up to a total of 587 under Calderón’s administration.1 0  However, other indicators, including the flow of drugs entering the United States, the levels of criminal violence in Mexico, and the geo. [...] These areas include the promotion of programs aimed at addressing the socioeconomic roots of insecurity and violence in Mexico and Central America, the development of a more humane and health-centered approach to the drug problem, and the replacement of the kingpin strategy in favor of more strategic and long-term deterrence policies against DTOs and TCOs more broadly. [...] Over the last decade, Mexican authorities have justified the use of the military on matters of public security in light of the high-levels of corruption permeating the police, particularly at the state and municipal levels.