Mexican President Felipe Calderón received a bi-party delegation of US legislators led by Representative Kay Granger, President of the Sub-Committee of Foreign Operations in the House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations.

During the meeting, President Calderón described the Mexican government’s actions to combat transnational organized crime and discussed bilateral cooperation on the issue with the US legislators.

The legislators highlighted the Mexican government’s commitment in the fight against organized crime, which profoundly affects the societies of the two countries.

A propos of this, the Legislators and the President agreed over the importance of continuing to expand and deepen bilateral cooperation, on the basis of shared responsibility, mutual trust and respect for the jurisdiction of each country.

They also stressed the need to fully implement Plan Mérida, highlighting the US government’s commitment to ensuring the delivery of equipment, technology and training equivalent to $500 million USD in 2011 and to continuing to advance towards the modernization of the common border to enhance the competitiveness and security of both countries.

President Calderón stressed the importance of combating arms dealing and asked the US legislators to adopted stricter measures to stop the illegal trafficking of weapons and cash into Mexico.

Lastly, the President hailed the solid bi-party support in the United States Congress for promoting higher levels of cooperation with Mexico in every sphere of bilateral relations, and the leadership and activism to promote links with Mexico by both Representative Kay Granger (Rep.-TX) and her predecessor in the President’s Sub-Committee, Nita Lowey (Dem.-NY).

The legislative delegation led by Representative Granger comprised Congressmen Silvestre Reyes (Dem.TX), James Moran (Dem.-VA), Mario Diaz-Balart (Rep.-FL), Thomas J. Cole (Rep.-OK), Kenneth Calvert (Rep.-CA), Jack Kingston (Rep.-GA) y Rodney Frelinghuysen (Rep.-NJ).

During the meeting, President Calderón was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Secretary Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, and Interior Secretary, José Francisco Blake Mora.