Mexico and US working to build new security framework

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — High-level delegations from Mexico and the United States are building a new security framework for the bilateral relationship that they hope will govern how the two countries cooperate on a broad range of issues. The so-called U.S.-Mexico Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities seeks to move beyond the 13-year-old Merida Initiative that focused on building Mexico’s crime-fighting capabilities and rule of law projects. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday, “it would be very unfortunate if we didn’t understand each other, if our cooperation, the friendship between our governments and our peoples wasn’t strengthened.”