Mexico: Bill limiting activities of ‘foreign agents’ threatens collaboration with US

Anti-narcotics co-operation between the U.S. and Mexico could be set back three decades if Mexico’s lower house of Congress approves a bill limiting the activities of “foreign agents,” including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. William Barr, the U.S. attorney-general, has warned that the bill — which passed the Senate on December 9 and was expected to be approved by the lower house before it breaks for Christmas on Tuesday — “can only benefit the violent transnational criminal organizations and other criminals that we are jointly fighting.” President López Obrador has defended the bill, saying that it affirms Mexican sovereignty. No clear legal framework regulating co-operation with agents of other governments exists, and it is time to “put things in order,” he said. The new rules would require the agency to hand all intelligence gathered in Mexico to the Mexican authorities. Experts said that would devastate joint anti-narcotics efforts. In addition, the DEA’s counterparts in Mexico would have to report the content of every contact, and agents could be stripped of diplomatic immunity if charged with a crime...MORE