Clinton to head high-level US trip to Mexico
Posted: 18 March 2010 0754 hrs

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WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to Mexico City next week for high-level talks on security, drug trafficking and other bilateral concerns, her office said Wednesday.

The meeting of the US-Mexico High Level Consultative Group had been in preparation for several months, officials said, but follows a wave of violence, including US consulate-linked killings in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Clinton will be joined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair and other top law enforcement and counternarcotics officials.

The group will attend the second formal meeting of the consultative group; the first was held in Washington in December 2008.

Clinton and Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa will chair an interagency discussion on the evolution of the Merida Initiative, a 1.3-billion-dollar program under which the United States shares technical expertise and provides military equipment to Mexico to fight organized crime.

- AFP/sc