Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown will lay out the collapse of security in Mexico over the past six years and the expansion of power of Mexican criminal groups. Mexican cartels are controlling ever larger portions of Mexico's territory, people, legal economies (not just illegal ones), and institutions, exerting ever larger power over Mexico's elections as well as expanding internationally across Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Canada. She will discuss how the Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador administration enabled this power expansion through its hugs-not-bullets approach to criminality in Mexico, despite the significant growth of militarization of all public policy in Mexico. She will then lay out the security strategy of the current Mexican government led by President Claudia Sheinbaum and the various plans of the Trump administrations, including the threats of a 25% tariff on Mexico, the designation of Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, and U.S. unilateral military actions into Mexico as well as implication for the upcoming review of USMCA.