SAN DIEGO –
Leaders from U.S. Army North (Fifth Army) and the Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, or SEDENA, of the Mexican Army met for a quarterly Regional Border Commanders Conference to discuss current trends along the U.S-Mexico border in San Diego March 7-9.
The conference allows leaders to maintain interoperability between the two nations and continues to build a strong partnership.
“We do this in the venue of theater security cooperation,” said Brig. Gen. Jim Blackburn, ARNORTH deputy commanding general. “We work very hard to try and mitigate all the problems we have communicating with each other – on tactics, techniques, procedures, but also working to develop long term plans that are sustainable for professional militaries to have dialog and how we can work together.”
Being able to come together and discuss any issues and trending concerns is vital to the security of both countries.
“It’s critical for our mission – the cooperation that we have with all the government of Mexico,” said Michael G. Corley, division chief, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “Specifically with SEDENA and especially in our remote areas where you may not see another law enforcement out there and to combat the counter network that exist, it’s critical to have a relationship with SEDENA.”
By coming together in a unity of effort the two groups can converse and collaborate on current and future operations.
“It’s great to have these opportunities – both to throw out different tactics and techniques, the procedures we’re seeing, being utilized across the border – getting every ones input and how we can problem solve and get better at what we do every day and I think all those topics were covered during this conference,” Corley said.
The majority of the population aren’t aware of the cooperation among the two governments in the interest of national security on both sides.
“We have professional military institutions that do the hard work day-to-day, year-in and year-out, to help both our countries have a productive security environment,” Blackburn said.