Thread: U.S. weighs aid to stem killings south of the border

U.S. weighs aid to stem killings south of border
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 05/17/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


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AUSTIN -- This week, as the death toll in Juárez passed 20, Texas lawmakers in Washington were debating the merits of a Bush administration plan to help Mexico fight drug cartels.
"The Merida Initiative is an opportunity to work in partnership with Mexico to make El Paso, the border region and our two nations safe from drug-related crime," U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said Friday. "This initiative will help protect our own citizens."

The Bush administration is urging Congress to approve $560 million this year for the Merida Initiative, which would send equipment to the Mexican government and provide training for law enforcement officers. The entire plan would send about $1.4 billion in aid to Mexico over three years.

But this week, some Texas lawmakers said they could not support the plan unless money first was sent to local law enforcement agencies on the U.S. side of the border.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, on Thursday included $100 million in federal money for border sheriffs in a funding bill that was approved in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The Merida plan, she said, would help Mexico, but would not help local officers who "are waging the same battle every day."

"We must arm our local law enforcement officers to combat these crimes and protect themselves and our citizens," Hutchison said in a news release.

As lawmakers continue their tug of war over how to combat border violence and drugs, the death toll continues to mount in
battles among the cartels and the Mexican government.
In Juárez, at least 21 killings were reported this week, including three homicides Friday. The Mexican government has sent in hundreds more soldiers, increasing the military presence in the city to more than 2,300 troops.

So far this year, nearly 300 people have been slain in Juárez and, in all of Mexico, more than 2,500 people have died in crime- and drug-related violence.

The amount of U.S. aid the Merida plan would send to help in the bloody drug battle is a "very lame, very tepid effort," said University of Texas at El Paso political science Professor Tony Payan.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Payan said, has dedicated more than $7 billion to fighting the cartels.

"It shows no seriousness on behalf of the United States," Payan said.

American companies the government would pay to provide Mexico the equipment and training, Payan said, would benefit most from the Merida Initiative.

What would help, he said, is movement by Congress to restrict guns and weapons in the U.S. that make their way to Mexico to fuel the conflict.

Better technology at border ports to prevent corruption that allows the drug flow to continue would help, too, said New Mexico State University government Professor Jose Garcia.

But the U.S. aid could help stem drug-related violence, Garcia said.

President Calderón's efforts, he said, have disrupted the drug cartels by targeting middlemen, instead of only the drug lords.

"They're just no longer as capable of running things as smoothly as they used to be, and so they're taking it out on each other and also on law enforcement agencies," Garcia said.

U.S. aid, he said, would be seen as an endorsement of Calderón's strategy.

"It's enough money to give the government of Mexico a lot more confidence in what it's doing," he said.

If the strategy continues effectively, he said, the cartels could break into smaller, less visible units to escape government notice, as the Colombian cartels did in the 1980s.

Violence could lessen, he said, but drug trafficking probably would not until Americans stop buying narcotics.

"Drugs are best dealt with on the demand side rather than supply side," Garcia said, "but it's not politically feasible, apparently, for that to happen."

Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606 .

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_9288804

If the Mexican Government is currently doing anything to stop drug pushers, they should be confiscating lots of drug money...............
I haven't heard of a big cash find being discovered since 2007.

Assuming they are finding money when they raid, where is it going?

WHY IS OUR CONGRESS CONSIDERING SENDING MONEY TO THE BORDER TO HELP MEXICO STOP DRUG DEALERS AND
AT THE SAME TIME LETTING GEORGE BUSH PULL OUT THE NATIONAL GUARD FROM THE BORDER.

THIS DOES NOT PASS THE "SMELL TEST".

and you would think GENEX, Mexico's government run oil company would want to contribute to the effort instead of giving huge amounts of money for celebration of MAY 1st...................

I'm sooo glad that finally, FINALLY, someone is taking a close look at Merida and questioning it....especially Republicans and from Texas at that!! I'm sure that this was the very last thing Bush and Calderon expected.

This article contains some of the best commentary challenging this that I've seen so far and what I am absolutely tickled to see is that there was no dancing around the issue, no attempt to sugar coat the truth for the sake of diplomacy or PC.

These folks are telling it like it is.....that the Mexican government is as corrupt as it gets and they should not receive one more cent from the United States.

I was particularly impressed with Mr. Culberson who came right out and said that this bending over backward to appease Mexico at the exclusion of what is in the best interests of our own LE and citizens, has got to stop.

The thing that gave me a boost was knowing just how livid Calderon must be!! Things are not exactly going according to his plan and he has got to be royally pissed

May 15, 2008, 11:11PM

Texas Republicans wary of Bush's plans for Mexico


By RICHARD S. DUNHAM and STEWART M. POWELL
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — President Bush's attempt to win $560 million in aid this year to assist Mexico's anti-narcotics efforts has run into a rebellion from some Texas Republicans worried about corruption, inefficiency and now defections among Mexican police officials.

Wednesday's disclosure that three Mexican police chiefs are seeking asylum in the United States prompted the Texans to push Thursday for congressional hearings on the bloody border war among Mexico's drug cartels and a reassessment of U.S. anti-drug assistance to the country.

"Our first priority must be to secure our own border and equip our own personnel before we even discuss sending one nickel to the corrupt Mexican government," said Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston.

Bush has asked Congress to approve emergency assistance for the Merida Initiative, the first installment of a three-year, $1.4 billion project to send American equipment and training to Mexican security forces battling powerful drug cartels.

But Texas lawmakers from both parties have balked at supplying the Mexican government with equipment that they say U.S. law enforcement agencies lack. And congressional Democratic leaders, eager to hand Bush yet another legislative setback, are likely to embrace the Texans' efforts.


$100 million for U.S.

Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a plan by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to insert $100 million for domestic law enforcement personnel into a spending bill currently working its way through Congress. The money is to be used for local law enforcement along the border and in areas of heavy drug trafficking.

Hutchison has withheld her support for Bush's proposal, saying she would back the initiative only if "there was also a major increase in funding for domestic law enforcement and border sheriffs."

In the House, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, is pushing to divert to U.S. law agencies half of the entire $1.4 billion proposed by Bush.

Poe said he was motivated by reports of Mexican corruption, including that of a police commander being found with $2.4 million in his car and Mexico's one-time drug czar being convicted in the late-1990s of taking bribes.

Culberson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, would cut off Mexican aid completely.

"What's most maddening to me is the answer is so easy: Help our own law enforcement officers do their job," he said. "Quit obsessing with how to placate Mexico and focus on protecting America at our border."

The continuing drug-related violence along the Texas-Mexico border — combined with the assassinations of senior Mexican law officials and the disclosure of the defections of the three police chiefs — led Texas Sen. John Cornyn to suggest a Capitol Hill probe of the situation.

"We need to have an investigation, essentially, and hearings in Congress about how best to help our Mexican neighbors combat the cartels," the San Antonio Republican said in a conference call with reporters. "Because frankly, it's not just in their interest. It's in our interest, as well."


'Help them in this fight'

While Cornyn said he would push for additional assistance to U.S. law enforcement personnel, he said that some aid to Mexico is needed, too:

"It's important that we provide assistance to the Mexican government as they request us to help them in this fight."

In Mexico City, the American flag flew at half-staff at the U.S. Embassy Thursday, partly to honor the slain Mexican police officers and soldiers.

Underscoring Bush's support for the Mexican government, U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said, " Mexico has lost too many heroes in the fight against criminals and drug cartels."

On a day commemorated in the United States as Peace Officers Memorial Day, Garza praised the slain Mexican agents along with those killed in the United States.

"These brave men and women inspire us by their sacrifice," he said, "and commitment to sustain free, peaceful and democratic societies"

Dudley Althaus contributed to this article from Mexico City.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5784172.html

[quote="TennesseeDaughter"]If the Mexican Government is currently doing anything to stop drug pushers, they should be confiscating lots of drug money...............
I haven't heard of a big cash find being discovered since 2007.

Assuming they are finding money when they raid, where is it going?

WHY IS OUR CONGRESS CONSIDERING SENDING MONEY TO THE BORDER TO HELP MEXICO STOP DRUG DEALERS AND
AT THE SAME TIME LETTING GEORGE BUSH PULL OUT THE NATIONAL GUARD FROM THE BORDER.

THIS DOES NOT PASS THE "SMELL TEST".

and you would think GENEX, Mexico's government run oil company would want to contribute to the effort instead of giving hug
e amounts of money for celebration of MAY 1st...................[/quote]




You're absolutely right Tennessee Daughter......this does not pass the smell test.

What is going on in Mexico is nothing new. This is a country where criminality has always been the way of life and what we're seeing is the same drug wars we saw in Colombia and other Latin American countries which, it was predicted, would continue moving north. Mexico has probably always been in the game but has now become a key player as the enterprise has grown larger, become more well organized and armed, more far reaching and widely reported on.

Calderon is making no effort to actually put an end to the drug cartels, human smuggling rings, or anything else criminal. He is just as corrupt and criminal as the rest and if his interest lies anywhere it is to eliminate the competitors to whichever side he is involved with. So much the better if he can get the United States to foot the bill for his business interests.