Thread: Mexican official wants U.S. to step up aid in drug war

Mexican official wants U.S. to step up aid in drug war

Updated 3m ago

By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's top law enforcement officer complained Wednesday that the United States has yet to deliver on its promise of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of training and surveillance equipment to fight murderous drug lords.
"I think it could be much faster, surely," Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said in an interview with USA TODAY before a visit next week by President Obama.

The aid package is known as the Merida Initiative after the city where Mexican President Felipe Calderón and President George W. Bush first discussed it in March 2007.

Bush requested $1.4 billion to fund anti-drug cartel efforts in Mexico and elsewhere amid Calderón's military crackdown. Much of the aid is in the form of equipment — such as helicopters, X-ray machines and computers for prosecutors — and police training. The Democratic-controlled Congress cut the first chunk of aid from $450 million to $300 million. Little of that money has been spent.

Since then, the violence has intensified. In the past year, traffickers have battled the army and each other for control of smuggling corridors.

Medina said that his country urgently needs the assistance but that Congress seems reluctant to fund the fight. "What is worrying to us is that the (aid appropriation) authorized for 2009 was reduced," he said. "In that sense, I don't think this issue is being given adequate priority."

The Calderón administration has pressed the United States to take steps against gun smuggling before Obama's visit to Mexico City on April 16-17.

Reinstating the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004, should be at the top of the list, Medina said. The law prohibited the sale of rifles with ammunition clips of more than 10 rounds or with military-style features such as pistol grips. The ban expired in 2004 and was not renewed by Congress.

Assault-style weapons accounted for about one-third of all guns seized by Mexican police during the years of the ban, he said. They now account for 63% of seized weapons, he said.

Though not machine guns and not necessarily more powerful than other types of rifles or pistols, they have an enormous intimidation effect, and the overwhelming majority come from the USA, Medina said.

Critics of the ban say the U.S. gun industry is not to blame for Mexico's drug wars. National Rifle Association spokesman Chris Cox says U.S. law enforcement investigations indicate that the vast majority of weapons seized in Mexico are smuggled from South America, China and Russia and that some come from Mexico's own police and military.

Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic.
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Will the Mexicans ever learn to take care of themselves and stop depending upon Americans for everything?

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Will the Mexicans ever learn to take care of themselves and stop depending upon Americans for everything?

No, they will not because big business needs the slave labor the illegals represent to make more profits for big banks and we, the average American, gets to pay for the illegals care through taxes, basically covering the cost of their upkeep. Simple plan really. More profit for the bankers and a little less for so many good Americans that we hardly noticed. Until now.

I know I'm preaching to the choir but it may help someone else. Thanks.