Mexico rejects new border wall plan after talks with U.S. officials.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador criticized the most recent wall plan as a “step backwards” before meeting with American officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

The United States announced it will continue a key Trump administration strategy by building new border wall sections in Starr County, Texas, in response to an increase in the number of migrants entering the country from Mexico.

Officials committed during the meetings to increase collaboration in the fight against organized crime, drug trafficking, and border pressure-relieving migration. Then, Mexico’s foreign minister, Alicia Barcena, emphasized her country’s opposition to the wall.

She stated, “We believe in bridges, not walls,” during a news conference with Blinken and Mayorkas.

Lopez Obrador has thanked Joe Biden for not erecting further border walls as president of the United States. During Donald Trump’s administration, the wall was a key friction point between the U.S. and Mexico.

The U.S. government said that because funds granted during Trump’s presidency in 2019 had to be used immediately, Thursday’s decision did not depart from Biden’s opposition to the wall.

According to Barcena, American cash won’t always be utilized to build barriers.

I know it won’t be through walls, it’ll be through technology, it’ll be through various sorts of installations, she remarked. Secretary Mayorkas was courteous enough to explain this to us, in my opinion, because we voiced worry.

She said that the American delegation had explained the fiscal circumstances and that the measures did not amount to a change in policy.

However, 2024 will see both the United States and Mexico hold presidential elections, making the return of the wall a prominent topic of discussion on both sides of the border.

The building of new wall parts was pushed through by the Biden administration, a Democrat, at the behest of the extreme right of the Republican Party, according to Lopez Obrador.

Blinken claimed to have had an “extremely positive, productive conversation” with Lopez Obrador and expressed confidence that Mexico will support the United States in the fight against the narcotic fentanyl, which is illegally produced and is a significant contributor to overdoses, according to U.S. health officials.

The son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Ovidio Guzman, was extradited on September 15 as a result of Mexico’s efforts, and Blinken congratulated Lopez Obrador for that, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

American officials have portrayed Ovidio and a few of his brothers as important fentanyl smugglers into the country.

However, this week, billboards along the sides of the road announced that the Guzman siblings had outlawed the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl in their home territory of the northern state of Sinaloa.

It is debatable who is primarily to blame for the fentanyl issue. Rosa Icela Rodriguez, the security minister for Mexico, stated at the press conference that her country acts as a hub for fentanyl traveling north.

However, Barcena said that illegal fentanyl factories had appeared in Mexico and were being shut down.