Merida Initiative

"The third meeting of the United States-Mexico Merida High-Level Consultative Group on Bilateral Cooperation against Transnational Criminal Organizations was held in April 2011. The Group, composed of cabinet secretaries from the United States and Mexico, aims to increase bilateral cooperation and coordinate action against transnational organized crime by building upon the implementation framework developed under the Merida Initiative. The four objectives agreed upon by the parties, called “pillars”, are the disruption of organized criminal groups, the institutionalization of the rule of law, the building of a twenty-first century border and the building of strong and resilient communities. Specific actions to be undertaken in the pursuit of those objectives include optimizing the use and sharing of intelligence; broadening support for state-level justice system reforms; modernizing border infrastructure; and the initiation of a binational demand reduction study."