IN NEW YORK, THE FOREIGN SECRETARY MEETS WITH CELAC AND THE IBEROAMERICAN CONFERENCE

• She participates in a meeting on citizen security in Central America convened by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

• The Mexican delegation participates in the "Connecting the Americas" meeting together with Secretary of State Clinton and Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin.

Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa’s agenda on the sidelines of the 67th United Nations General Assembly in New York was a full one.

She met with her Latin American counterparts at a breakfast meeting to review their progress in preparation for the upcoming Iberoamerican Summit to be held in Cadiz, Spain, reiterating Mexico’s readiness to continue contributing to strengthening the Ibero-American political dialogue and cooperation to position it correctly for its third decade.

She also participated in the first meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which seeks to maintain the political dialogue of the region with other countries and groups of nations to follow up on the Rio Group dialogues. This ministerial meeting was held to advance with the preparations for the first CELAC summit that will be held in Santiago, Chile from January 27-28, 2013.

The Foreign Secretary also participated in the meeting of Foreign Ministers on Citizen Security in Central America, which was convened by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to make progress with implementing the projects and activities of the Central American Security Strategy (ESCA).

In this framework, Foreign Secretary Espinosa presented a detailed report on Mexico’s programs under ESCA’s crime-fighting component. She emphasized the need to set regional cooperation priorities and to promote projects that have the greatest impact on the common goal of lowering transnational organized crime.

The Mexican Foreign Secretary also took part in the "Connecting the Americas" meeting cosponsored by U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and Colombian Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín. During the event, Secretary Espinosa presented the progress Mexico has made in its electrical interconnections with its neighbors to the south and north. Creating an integrated energy market in the Americas was highlighted as a key part of improving the competitiveness of the countries of the hemisphere.