A failure to comply with the law carries not just administrative charges, but also criminal indictments and the expulsion of foreign agents.Įssentially, the law paralyzes Mexico’s cooperation with international law enforcement counterparts and eviscerates any remaining trust and meaningful law enforcement cooperation between the United States and Mexico. Foreign agents are required to report to the federal government any and all information and deliver monthly reports on their activities. Meetings of Mexican officials with foreign agents must have prior authorization from a group of senior federal officials. It also mandates that a member of the Mexican Foreign Ministry (SRE) be present at any such meetings. The legislation mandates all Mexican officials and law enforcement officers at the local, state, and federal levels to report to the federal government every phone call, meeting, or any other communication with foreign law enforcement or intelligence agents within three days of it taking place. But even if López Obrador is merely using the law as bargaining leverage with the upcoming Biden administration –like Kim Jong-Un shooting off policy missiles– he has already caused considerable damage to U.S.-Mexican relations. Such a rupture would be bad for both countries, and terrible for Mexico. If the legislation is signed by López Obrador and thus implemented, it would put the U.S.-Mexico security relationship back into the deep freezer of the early 1990s. Under pressure, the Mexican military, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his Morena party have whipped up nationalist sovereignty emotions and drafted and passed the law rapidly. arrest of Mexico’s former Secretary of Defense Salvador Cienfuegos on drug trafficking and corruption charges at the Los Angeles airport in October. It is clearly directed at the United States in retaliation for the U.S. On Tuesday, the Mexican Congress passed a new law severely restricting the operations of foreign law enforcement agents in Mexico.

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