First modification:
This Thursday the Mexican Government published the guidelines for the execution of the National Security Law, approved by Congress last December. However, the published rules soften the major limitations that the norm would have represented for the work of foreign agents in their territory, particularly the Drug Control Administration (DEA), a fact that had generated strong annoyance and rejection on the part of the U.S. government.
Mexico softens the law that caused friction with the United States and fears that it could block cooperation and the fight against drugs. This Thursday, the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador published the rules that will govern the National Security Law as of this Friday and in them it presents some changes.
The new guidelines detail the way in which foreign agents will work with their Mexican counterparts, but it is only limited to some details about the meetings that foreigners hold in Mexican territory, such as basic information on the people involved, without having to provide confidential information. Mexican public servants will have a period of up to three days after contact to report any exchanged content to their government.
The previous proposal, approved last December by both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, required foreign agents to share with local officials all information obtained on Mexican soil. The new rules appear to guarantee the privacy of investigations, bringing relief to US authorities that they will no longer have to communicate widely about their findings, especially amid Washington intelligence concerns that Mexican institutions have become involved. with drug cartels.
The modification to the regulations requested by López Obrador a few days after the new president of the United States, Joe Biden takes office, is perceived by some experts as an attempt to create a good political atmosphere with the incoming government, which has raised its desire to reorient its relationship with Mexico.
“They wanted to lower the volume and tone with these guidelines so as not to exacerbate a possible confrontation with Biden and these (US) officials who are taking office,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a former Mexican intelligence official and security analyst.
Guerrero added that the new rules are likely to be applied flexibly, with the new government continuing to coordinate between the two countries. “It has to continue because we depend so much on American intelligence,” he said.
However, the legislation maintains other guidelines. “Foreign agents who commit crimes or infractions for violating the legal provisions that prohibit them from exercising functions reserved to the Mexican authorities will not enjoy any type of immunity,” stated the Mexican Government in the rules published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF ).
The annoyances of Mexico to promote the National Security law
The Trump Administration had expressed its dissatisfaction with the possibility that the regulations could limit the activities of the Drug Control Administration (DEA) in Mexico, despite the history of cooperation between the two nations, which in 1989 they signed the Agreement between the United Mexican States and the United States of America on Cooperation to Combat Drug Trafficking and Drug Dependence.
Although the AMLO Administration argued that the new law was necessary to guarantee the sovereignty of their country, many saw the push for the regulation as a form of retaliation for the capture in the United States of General Salvador Cienfuegos, after a secret DEA operation. .
According to Washington, Cienfuegos would have had ties to drug trafficking when he led the Army and served as Secretary of Defense, between 2012 and 2018.
The president of Mexico expressed his disgust at the fact that US officials obtained information from his country and will make the decision to capture the military without consulting the Mexican government. “It’s not worth it,” AMLO reproached at that time.
After the mediation of his government, the US authorities agreed to withdraw the charges against Cienfuegos and deport him to Mexico, where he remains free while the investigations are carried out in his country.
With Reuters and local media
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source https://pledgetimes.com/mexico-softens-the-controversial-national-security-law-after-the-rejection-of-the-united-states/
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