Spanish Minister for Home Affairs Travels to Washington to Meet with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Attorney General

​Spanish Minister for Home Affairs Fernando Grande-Marlaska will be traveling to the United States today, on a trip focused on continuing to strengthen Spain-U.S. bilateral relations in security matters. Among other activities, Minister Grande-Marlaska will meet with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The meeting with Secretary Mayorkas, his American counterpart, follows their meeting last June in Madrid, and will be centered around issues including the fight against jihadist terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking, and cybercrime, all of which are priorities in Spain and the United States’ bilateral security relations. They also plan to discuss enhancing training collaboration between both countries’ Armed and Security Forces. Moreover, the Minister will address the bolstering of multilateralism and advocate for joint action in South and Central America, regions in which Spain and the United States have mutual security interests.

Taking advantage of being in Washington, Minister Grande-Marlaska will also share the takeaways from his discussions last week in Bogotá with Colombian President Iván Duque and other members the government, as both the United States and Spain share objectives with the Colombian government in the fight against organized crime.

The Minister will then meet with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. Their meeting will focus on strengthening the collaboration between the agencies of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Spanish State Security Forces and Corps in joint operations and investigations, paying particularly close attention to drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking, and child abuse on the internet.