Good to be back. Mexican and U.S. officials met this week to restart the High-Level Economic Dialogue (HLED) after a five-year hiatus. The meetings are a reminder that despite its demanding foreign policy agenda, Washington needs Mexico to have a strong economy to ensure border security, as Dr. Luis Rubio told AS/COA’s Carin Zissis in Latin America in Focus. 

Hear the head of México Evalúa dig into bilateral relations and more as Andrés Manuel López Obrador hits the midway point of his presidency.
 

For more: Americas Society Board Member and former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio O. Garza dives into what happened at the HLED talks in his latest newsletter. And Mexican diplomat Julián Ventura spells out the HLED’s importance in a Twitter thread. 
 

Lost in the mail. Once hailed as a cheap and accessible vaccine option for Latin America, Russia’s vaccine has run into delivery problems in Argentina, Guatemala, and elsewhere. Read about Sputnik V’s stumbles in the region. 

THEY SAID WHAT?

• Just across the border from Texas, Mexico made history this week when the Supreme Court deemed not one, but two anti-choice laws unconstitutional, paving the way for abortion decriminalization in the world’s second-largest Catholic country. (Guardian, El Financiero)
• Uruguay started the process of negotiating a trade deal with China, spelling a challenge for Mercosur. (El Economista)
• Colombia’s president proposed debt forgiveness measures for Latin American countries that achieve climate goals. (Portafolio)
• The number of Haitian migrants is soaring in Mexico, but only 20 percent can gain asylum. (La Lista)

• Chile approves the use of Sinovac in children six and older. (AP)
• Brazil's president inks a law that could break COVID-19 vaccine patents. (Reuters) 
• Peru reaches an agreement with Russia to build a domestic Sputnik V plant. (El Peruano)