U.S. conditions threaten Mexico anti-drug package

07:55 AM CDT on Thursday, May 29, 2008
By LAURENCE ILIFF / The Dallas Morning News
liliff@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News

MEXICO CITY – Mexico will tell the U.S. to keep its money, if the U.S. Congress insists on linking a proposed anti-drug aid package to a series of human rights and legal conditions along with whittling down its dollar value, Mexican politicians, analysts and a top law enforcement official said Wednesday. Both houses of Congress have passed the package but have not agreed on a final version.

The conditions – which touch on human rights, judicial reforms and other issues – amount to a return to "certification," a past practice in which the U.S. unilaterally decided whether nations were doing enough to fight drug production and trafficking, said José LuÃ*s Santiago Vasconcelos, assistant attorney general for international affairs.

Mexico considered certification a violation of its sovereignty.

"Why don't we tell the Americans to use those [funds] for their own interdiction forces or interception forces ... and stop the flow of weapons," Mr. Santiago Vasconcelos said in a radio interview. "Rather than giving them to Mexico, they can be used by the Americans to reinforce their Customs service, their Border Patrol, and stop the arms trafficking to our country."
Mr. Santiago Vasconcelos' boss, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, said in a television interview Wednesday that President Felipe Calderón is waiting to see the final version of the aid package before making a decision.

"The president will very carefully consider what is finally approved, and defending the best interests of Mexico, will make the correct decision, of that we can be sure," Mr. Medina Mora said.

The sudden change in the Mexican government's tone – after heralding the package as an unprecedented opportunity for the two nations to work together on a critical issue – could mark the end of the so-called Merida Initiative, analysts said.

The $1.4 billion plan is aimed at helping Mexico obtain helicopters, improve intelligence sharing, and reduce the smuggling of high-powered weapons from the U.S. to Mexico. It is named after the Mexican city where President Bush and Mr. Calderón first discussed the deal in March 2007.

"I think one way or another, it's dead," said political commentator Ricardo Alemán. "Mr. Vasconcelos is a very high-ranking police official and has support from the government."

No political party will support an aid package with the U.S. if serious strings are attached, Mr. Alemán said, especially one that offers no cash payments at all, but rather "in-kind" support made up mostly of used "junk" helicopters.

The last time Mexico accepted used helicopters from the U.S., it was forced to give them back after several crashed.

Mr. Alemán said a rejection of a flawed deal with the U.S. would be politically popular for Mr. Calderón, who is losing some support for the bloody drug war that has taken 4,150 lives since he took office Dec. 1, 2006. More than 450 of those slain have been police.

"Mexicans are very unyielding on this," Mr. Alemán said. "First you reduce the amount, and then you put on conditions, so why don't you just keep your money."


Nationalism surfaces

Some Mexican politicians echoed those sentiments, showing the nationalism for which the nation is famous when dealing with the U.S. Others were taking a more wait-and-see approach.

Meanwhile, American officials held out the possibility that Congress could backtrack on the conditions to the plan and the cuts.

White House spokesman Blair Jones said Wednesday that the administration is pushing Congress to revert to Mr. Bush's original proposal, which allocated $500 million for Mexico and $50 million for Central America.

"The Merida Initiative represents a partnership with Mexico and Central America to combat the common threats of narcotics and related violence. This initiative reflects our shared responsibility to address a critical security issue," Mr. Jones said.

"President Calderón and the leaders of Central America are doing their part; it's in our own interest to help them succeed," he said. "The legislative process is not complete and ... we continue to urge Congress to support the president's request as originally proposed."

Mexican politicians from left to right have warned the U.S. that they will not accept severe conditions on the package, which evolved into a three-year deal, with $500 million for the first year. Congress has since cut the first payment to $350 million.

Mr. Calderón's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, does not have a majority in the Mexican Congress, and party politicians have been nearly as vocal as the opposition in rejecting conditions.

Ruth Zavaleta, coordinator of the lower house of Congress for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, rejected the U.S. Senate version of the aid package as interventionist.

"We are the first ones to defend the idea that Mexico needs these reforms, along with advances in human rights," she said. "But the United States cannot make unilateral demands."


'More information'

Juan Francisco Rivera Bedoya, president of the public security commission of the lower house of Congress and a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, said there remains a lack of information on just how far-reaching the U.S. conditions might be once the Congress there has a final bill.

"It's not an outright rejection," he said Wednesday. "We want more information."

Politically, however, conditions could be a deal-breaker, he said.

Eduardo de la Torre Jaramillo, a member of the ruling party who sits on the lower house's defense commission, said U.S. politicians need to understand that Mexico has done its part and does not need additional conditions that could kill the deal.

He cited record drugs seizures, the extraditions of drug lords to the United States and 22,000 people prosecuted for drug crimes under Mr. Calderón, along with sweeping judicial reforms and better police training.

"My message to U.S. legislators and the U.S. government is that we need cooperation but that we cannot change our laws in a radical way or return to the old models of the late 1990s" when the United States unilaterally "certified" nations in the drug fight.


Staff writer Brendan McKenna in Washington and news assistant Javier Garcia in Mexico City contributed to this report


We can stop the illegals while we are at it .


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