U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar toured USNORTHCOM and NORAD facilities and discussed increased collaboration on security issues between Mexico and the U.S. with USNORTHCOM and NORAD Cmdr. Gen. Gregory T. Guillot. USNORTHCOM
THE WATCH STAFF
The U.S. ambassador to Mexico and the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) met in Colorado in July 2024 to discuss the strong Mexico-U.S. relationship and increasing collaboration on homeland defense issues.
Ken Salazar, a former Secretary of the Interior and U.S. senator from Colorado, toured the Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station and the Cheyenne Mountain Complex Museum on July 8. Salazar also visited the NORAD and USNORTHCOM alternate Joint Operations Center. During the visit, Salazar and NORAD and USNORTHCOM Commander Gen. Gregory T. Guillot discussed collaborating more closely with Mexico on security issues, including aerospace warning and information sharing. They also talked about future cooperation with Mexico in the space and cyber domains and in common defense of critical infrastructure supporting the homeland defense mission, according to a USNORTHCOM post on its Facebook page.
Salazar became the U.S. ambassador to Mexico in September 2021. His long career of public service began in Colorado, where his family has farmed on the banks of the Colorado River in New Mexico and Colorado for four centuries. In 1998, he was elected Colorado attorney general and was re-elected in 2002, becoming the first Latino to be elected to statewide office. In 2004, he won a U.S. Senate seat. In 2009, then-President Barack Obama selected Salazar to be Secretary of the Interior where he took a lead role in the administration’s initiatives on energy, climate and conservation. He has been a lifelong advocate for greater inclusion of Latinos in U.S. politics and society, according to his official biography.
In Guillot’s March 2024 remarks to Congress about Mexico, he praised the blossoming military relationship between the two countries that share a 3,145-kilometer border, calling it “robust and expanding.” Guillot said direct, strategic talks between leaders have increased, pointing to the North American Defense Ministers conference as an example. He praised more frequent military operations involving the two nations, mentioning the 2023 Aztec Alligator exercise.
“The bonds between USNORTHCOM and our Mexican military partners are broad, resilient and focused on expanding our combined capability to defend and secure North America from myriad state and non-state threats. Countering competitor influence in the region remains a key priority for USNORTHCOM and our Mexican military partners, and as a direct result, the U.S. and Mexican militaries are more operationally compatible than at any point in our shared history,” Guillot said.