Thread: US Congress approves anti-drug aid for Mexico, Central Ameri

Friday, June 27, 2008 - 06:30

AFP News Briefs List

US Congress approves anti-drug aid for Mexico, Central America
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The US Senate late Thursday approved a 1.6-billion-dollar, three-year package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean known as the "Merida Initiative."




File photo shows a member of Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency participates in an anti-narcotic operation at Guerrero neighborhood in Mexico City. The US Senate late Thursday approved a 1.6 billion dollar, three-year package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean known as the "Merida Initiative."




Souvenirs are displayed outside the chapel of Saint Jesus Malverde, a bandit of the XVIII century turned into the "saint of the drug dealers" by the people in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico on June 2. The US Senate late Thursday approved a 1.6-billion-dollar, three-year package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean known as the "Merida Initiative."


The bill was approved by the House of Representatives on June 10, so the measure now goes to President George W. Bush to be signed into law.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid described the measure as "critical," and said its approval "shows the strong Congressional support on both sides of the aisle for working together to tackle shared problems with our neighbors on such a vexing issue."

"Mexico and the United States have a shared problem and we must have a shared solution," Reid said.

The senator said US officials "recognize that our voracious appetite for illegal narcotics has added to the problem at hand. We also recognize we must do more to stop the flow of the firearms contraband which is also exacerbating the problem."

The Merida Initiative was within the budget supplemental measure approved late Thursday that included 162 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Congress cut 50 million dollars from the 450 million asked by Bush for Mexico for the first year of the initiative, and expanded by 65 million the sum for Central America, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The White House expressed its frustration with the reduced funding for Mexico.

"Well, it wasn't quite full funding that the president had asked for, so in that regard the president is not satisfied," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

An underworld war between rival drug gangs and police has escalated into open bloody conflict in Mexico in recent weeks, with more than 1,500 people killed this year, some 500 of them in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez alone.

On Thursday, unknown assailants shot to death a Federal Police commander and his bodyguard in a Mexico City restaurant in a brazen midday attack.

Gunmen on May 8 assassinated the acting federal police chief Edgar Millan. A day later assailants killed Esteban Robles, commander of Mexico City's anti-kidnapping police.

And top federal organized crime investigator Roberto Velasco was gunned down at his home in the capital May 6. He died in hospital shortly thereafter.

Since December 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderon's government has deployed 36,000 military troops and thousands of police around the country in an operation aimed at clamping down on organized crime.

On Wednesday Mexican officials said police seized more than two tonnes of cocaine stashed in a house in the southeastern Mexican city of Tuxtla Gutierrez.

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Yup, just keep giving our hard earned tax dollars to a corrupt government that snubs its nose at us when it comes to securing the border and keeping their citizens home. It's all about gimmee gimmee, but we get nothing in return. What do you want to bet that this isn't going to help the situation one little bit. In fact, I predict it will continue to get worse regardless of how much we help them.

Soon the drug cartels and criminals will get their hands on the latest technology to aid them in smuggling even more drugs. The cartels, not Calderon, are in charge of the northern states of Mexico.

Mexico wouldn't accept the $1.6 billion with conditions so our government gave them free reign.

Mexico is the 6th largest oil producer in the world and oil is $142 a barrel and we are giving Mexico money?

Release our Border Patrol from prison, build the fence.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid





Send this moron to Mexico along with the billion billion billion billion for the corrupt Mexican government.

More money has been spent by the US government on anti-drug programs that any thing else. Its like flushing it down the toilet. Someone has to take charge of this wasteful spending.

They have been so called fighting it for 30 years and look where we are today....

That money will be used to open more Mexican consulates, give aid to commericals and ads in stopping the so called hate in America, to turn Americans attitudes around about our invaders......what a crock,

I hate the fact my money is being used to fight against everything I believe in......The sovereignty of my country and the right for Americans to have our laws enforced.......what a bunch of crooks and thiefs

SO, in essence, every man, woman, and child in the U.S. just sent $5 to Mexico. I find it curious that our government will spend billions to battle drugs over there, while completely ignoring the topic of substance abuse here at home.

After all, those drugs are coming here to be used by addicts or soon-to-be addicts. A significant percentage of incarcerated people in the U.S. are guilty of petty drug crimes and crimes related to drug dependency (petty theft, burglary, robbery).

If we adequately addressed the problem of drug addiction here by expanding drug abuse rehabilitation funding, we'd:
-Save money on the incarceration costs for drug abuse related crime.
-Decrease addiction related crime.
-Decrease the demand for said drugs from Mexico.

Now, decreasing the pull from here is only one facet of the issue. But every party involved on both sides claims the demand creates the problem. If this is so, how come the majority of funds spent are historically on eliminating the supply instead of addressing those already addicted (who are the most reliable and potentially dangerous customers)?

If the U.S. feels that strongly about supporting Mexico instead of supporting addicts here, how about we enlist the help of all of the illegals here? Surely they want to help "Mother Mexico", don't they? Why can't we tax the remittances (not the most original idea) going to Mexico and use THAT money to pay for initiatives like Meridia? At least then it would be Mexicans paying for it instead of us.

I know, I can get a little loopy on Friday afternoons

Mexico welcomes U.S. aid in war on drug gangs

27 Jun 2008 17:52:51 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Miguel Gutierrez

MEXICO CITY, June 27 (Reuters) - Mexico on Friday welcomed the U.S. Senate's approval of $400 million to fund equipment for its war on drug gangs and said it showed Washington finally recognized narcotics trafficking was a shared problem.

The U.S. Senate approved $465 million in drug-fighting aid for Mexico and Central America on Thursday, delivering the first installment of the $1.4 billion in so-called "Merida Initiative" aid pledged by U.S. President George W. Bush during a visit to the Mexican city of Merida in 2007.

The Mexico portion was $85 million less than Bush initially requested, but Mexican Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino praised U.S. lawmakers for softening conditions on the aid.

"The terms under which the Merida Initiative resources were approved are respectful of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of both countries," Mourino told a news conference.

"Aside from the resources in kind made available to our country, the importance of the Merida Initiative is that finally the United States is recognizing that the problem is shared, is bilateral, that this means it has a responsibility with this fight."

Mexico, which is shelling out $7 billion for a 3-year military crackdown on the violent gangs that supply cocaine and other drugs to the lucrative U.S. market, has repeatedly asked the United States to focus on curbing the flow of illegal guns over its southern border.

Mexico is grappling with a surge in violent cartel murders and estimates 97 percent of the arms used by its drug cartels are smuggled in from the United States.

U.S. lawmakers initially wanted the Merida aid, which will include helicopters and surveillance devices, to be subject to monitoring, with a focus on protecting human rights.

But the U.S. House of Representatives softened language in the bill after Mexico said attaching conditions would require legal changes that would violate its constitution.

More than 1,600 people have been killed in drug violence this year as President Felipe Calderon's army offensive intensifies turf battles between rival cartels.

On Friday, drug hitmen shot six police on patrol. And a regional police chief was murdered on Thursday as he ate lunch in Mexico City, the latest in a rash of police slayings. (Editing by Catherine Bremer and Stacey Joyce)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27461416.htm