The Secretary of National Defense, Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, announced on September 11, 2026 that next week there will be a meeting with United States authorities to exchange information and follow up on the binational anti-drone operation Águila Alta, deployed on the northern border with 800 military personnel.
Águila Alta operates in a five-kilometer strip centered on Mesa de Otay, between Tijuana and San Diego, with 500 meters of depth on each side of the border line, according to La Jornada. The operation began on August 31 and concludes on September 21, 2026; the coordination exercises and simultaneous ground reconnaissances were carried out from August 31 to September 2. The mirror operations, in which each force acts within its own territory, were implemented from February 2025 along the entire border. For Mexico, the meeting opens the first formal channel of follow-up between the two governments on the use of drones in that strip.
Trevilla detailed that around 800 personnel take part in the operation, supported by semi-fixed and mobile anti-drone equipment capable of jamming devices within a three-kilometer radius; Mexico has two or three of those teams to cover its part of the strip, while the United States operates a similar scheme on the American side. Along the entire northern border, some 10,000 National Guard personnel and close to 3,300 military personnel remain deployed, according to El Universal. The secretary indicated that so far there have been no results on the Mexican side and that no increase in drone use on the border has been detected. President Claudia Sheinbaum clarified that these are commercial drones used to take video, not armed devices.
Next week's meeting will be the space where both delegations review the results obtained and adjust coordination. Operation Águila Alta has a scheduled closing date of September 21, so the encounter will take place before that final evaluation.
This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.