Thread: US Gives Mexico Another Black Hawk Helicopter

US Gives Mexico Another Black Hawk Helicopter


Published November 22, 2011



Mexico received three Black Hawks from the United States in September

Washington – The United States will deliver a fourth Black Hawk helicopter to Mexico next month as part of an effort to bolster that country's capabilities under the Merida Initiative, a security cooperation pact aimed at fighting drug trafficking and other forms of transnational organized crime.

Mexico received three Black Hawks from the United States in September.

The $20 million UH 60M Black Hawk, one of the most advanced aircraft of its type in the world, is equipped with gear that allows it to support operations at night, the State Department said.

"With additional deliveries of equipment, training, and capacity building in 2011, we intend to meet the secretary's commitment to deliver $500 million in calendar year 2011, bringing the overall total delivered to more than $900 million," the State Department said.

Officials initially said the helicopter had been delivered on Monday, but the department later said the aircraft would be given to Mexico on Dec. 8.

The United States has provided Mexico with 14 helicopters, including the three Black Hawks delivered on Sept. 15 to the Navy Secretariat, under the Merida Initiative.

The regional security cooperation pact was crafted by the Bush administration in 2007 to help Mexico, Central America, Haiti and the Dominican Republic fight drug trafficking and other forms of transnational crime.

The U.S. Congress has approved more than $1.6 billion for the pact since it took effect in 2008.

The approximately $500 million in assistance being provided this year by the Obama administration to Mexico will push the total aid received by that country under the pact to around $900 million.

Mexico has used the assistance to train more than 52,000 police officers and judicial branch employees, and improve the exchange of intelligence, leading to the arrests of more than 33 high-level drug traffickers, the State Department said.


Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2 ... z1ekLzgYTv


I thought we had no money left to patrol the border or to deport any more than 400,000 Illegal tennants. How many would almost a billion $ deport anyway? Our Border Patrol is walking and riding horses and the Mexicans are flying in attack Helicopters

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I am well aware we have air assets in large numbers. The point is why are we giving the Mexicans or anyone else 20 million $ helicopters, 14 of them? If they want some Sikorsky would be happy to sell them all they want. They have confiscated enough money from drug dealers to buy a whole squadron of them.
This government blocked the sale of the F-16 C/D to Taiwan and they had the 9 billion $ to pay for them.
I probably paid for a handful of titanium screws that I would rather have had that money spent on more enforcement on our border. I do not care what happens on the other side.

"The United States will deliver a fourth Black Hawk helicopter to Mexico next month as part of an effort to bolster that country's capabilities under the Merida Initiative, a security cooperation pact aimed at fighting drug trafficking and other forms of transnational organized crime."

This is part of the Meridian Initiative signed into law by Bush June 30, 2008.
We are stuck paying for all of this giveaway stuff.

Mérida Initiative

From Wikipedia

The Mérida Initiative (also called Plan Mexico by critics) is a security cooperation agreement between the United States and the government of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the declared aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational organized crime and money laundering. The assistance includes training, equipment and intelligence.

In seeking partnership with the United States, Mexican officials point out that the illicit drug trade is a shared problem in need of a shared solution, and remark that most of the financing for the Mexican traffickers comes from American drug consumers. U.S. law enforcement officials estimate that US$12 to 15 billion per year flows from the United States to the Mexican traffickers, and that is just in cash, i.e., not including the money sent by wire transfers.[1] Other government agencies, including the Government Accountability Office and the National Drug Intelligence Center, have estimated that Mexico's cartels earn upwards of $23 billion per year in illicit drug revenue from the United States.[2][3]

U.S. State Department officials are aware that Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s willingness to work with the United States is unprecedented on issues of security, crime and drugs,[4] so the U.S. Congress passed legislation in late June 2008 to provide Mexico with $400 million and Central American countries with $65 million that year for the Mérida Initiative. The initiative was announced on 22 October 2007 and signed into law on June 30, 2008.

Drug cartels and their areas of influence.

Hot spots where police corruption and extreme cartel violence prompted an increased use of the military in law enforcement roles.
Mexico remains a transit and not a cocaine production country. Marijuana and methamphetamine production do take place in Mexico and are responsible for an estimated 80% of the methamphetamine on the streets in the United States,[5] while 1100 metric tons of marijuana are smuggled each year from Mexico.[6]

In 1990, just over half the cocaine imported into the U.S. came through Mexico. By 2007, that had risen to more than 90 percent, according to U.S. State Department estimates.[7] Although violence between drug cartels has been occurring long before the war began, the government used its police forces in the 1990s and early 2000s with little effect. That changed on December 11, 2006, when newly elected President Felipe Calderón sent 6,500 federal troops to the state of Michoacán to put an end to drug violence there. This action is regarded as the first major retaliation made against cartel operations, and is generally viewed as the starting point of the war between the government and the drug cartels.[8] As time progressed, Calderón continued to escalate his anti-drug campaign, in which there are now well over 25,000 troops involved.

During president Calderón's administration, the Mexican government has spent approximately $7 USD billion in an 18-month-old campaign against drug cartels.[9] It is estimated that during 2006, there were about 2000 drug-related violent deaths,[10] about 2300 deaths during 2007; more than 3,725 people have during 2008.[11][12] Many of the dead were gang members killed by rivals or by the government, some have been bystanders.[13][14] At least 450 police officers and soldiers have been killed since January 2007.[15]

The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) has noted that cocaine availability decreased in several U.S. drug markets during the first half of 2007, mostly because of record 33.5 ton cocaine seizures by the Mexican Navy.[16] However, it is estimated that the major drug trafficking organizations are currently reorganizing and readjusting to the new challenges facing their trade; as a result, drug availability in 2008 is once again on the rise. One of the new adaptations is the use of home-made narco submarines; in 2006, American officials say they detected only three; now they are spotting an average of ten per month, but only one in ten is intercepted.[17] Another recent development is the consolidation of the smaller drug trafficking organizations into powerful alliances, escalating the violence between the groups vying for control of the narcotics trade to the U.S. Some 300 tons of cocaine are estimated to pass through Mexico to the U.S. yearly.[18]

[edit] Funding

The U.S. Congress has now authorized $1.6 USD billion for the three-year initiative (2007–2010). The U.S. Congress approved $465 million in the first year, which includes $400 million for Mexico and $65 million for Central America, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. For the second year, Congress approved $300 million for Mexico and $110 million for Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A FY09 supplemental appropriation is providing an additional $420 million for Mexico; and $450 million for Mexico and $100 million for Central America has been requested for FY10.[19]

Only about $204 million of that, however, will be earmarked for the Mexican military for the purchase of eight used transport helicopters and two small surveillance aircraft. No weapons are included in the plan.[20][21][22] The bill requires that $73.5 million of the $400 million for Mexico must be used for judicial reform, institution-building, human rights and rule-of-law issues. The bill specifies that 15% of the funds will be dependent on Mexico making headway in four areas relating to human-rights issues, and on which the U.S. Secretary of State will have to report periodically to Congress.[23][24]

An additional $65 million was granted for the Central American countries (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama); the House also included Haiti and the Dominican Republic in this bill for Central America, which is a comprehensive public security package that seeks to tackle citizen insecurity in Central America by more effectively addressing criminal gangs, improving information sharing between countries, modernizing and professionalizing the police forces, expanding maritime interdiction capabilities, and reforming the judicial sector in order to restore and strengthen citizens’ confidence in those institutions.[25]

Much of the funding will never leave the United States. It will go toward the purchase of aircraft, surveillance software, and other goods and services produced by U.S. private defense contractors. While this request includes equipment and training, it does not involve any cash transfers or money to be provided directly to the Government of Mexico or its private contractors. According to U.S. State Department officials, 59% of the proposed assistance will go to civil agencies responsible for law enforcement, and 41% to operational costs for the Mexican Army and Mexican Navy. While the initial cost for equipment and hardware that the military required is high, it is expected that future budget requests will focus increasingly on training and assistance to civil agencies.

As of November 2009, the U.S. has delivered about $214 million of the pledged $1.6 billion.[26]

With the Mérida Initiative set to expire on September 30, 2010, the U.S. State Department has proposed a major renewal and expansion of the program. If approved, starting in 2011, $310 million would be granted to Mexico, another $100 million for the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), and $79 million for the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI).[27]

[edit] Equipment

The Mérida Initiative will provide funding for:[28][29]
Non-intrusive inspection equipment such as ion scanners, gamma ray scanners, X-ray vans and canine units for Mexico and Central America.
Technologies to improve and secure telecommunications systems that collect criminal information in Mexico.
Technical advice and training to strengthen the institutions of justice, case management software to track investigations through the system, new offices of citizen complaints and professional responsibility, and witness protection programs to Mexico.
Thirteen Bell 412 EP helicopters (5 with INCLE funds for the Federal Police and 8 with FMF funds for the military).
Eleven UH-60 Black Hawk transport helicopters (three with INCLE funds for the Federal Police and 5 with FMF funds for the Mexican Air Force), and three for the Mexican Navy.[30]
Up to four CASA CN-235 transport aircraft.
Equipment, training and community action programs in Central American countries to implement anti-gang measures and expand the reach of these measures.

[edit] Smuggling of firearms

The Mérida Initiative includes $74 million to be assigned for efforts by the U.S. government to stop the flow of illegal weapons from the U.S. to Mexico, but important concerns remain regarding how this will be achieved. According to a Mexican government official, as many as 2,000 weapons enter Mexico each year and fuel an arms race between competing drug cartels. Since 1996, the ATF has traced more than 62,000 firearms smuggled into Mexico from the United States.[31] Mexican government officials suspect that corrupt customs officials, on both sides of the border, help smuggle weapons into Mexico; as reported by ATF, the most common "traced" firearms now include the Colt AR-15 .223 caliber rifle, the AK-47 assault rifle, FN 5.7 caliber semi-automatic pistol and a variety of armor piercing .50 caliber long range sniper rifles and machine guns. Also, there have been occasions where grenade launchers were used against security forces and twelve M4 Carbines with M203 grenade launchers have been confiscated.[32][33][34] It is believed that some of these high power weapons were stolen from U.S. military bases.[35]

An analysis of firearms trace data by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over the past three years shows that weapons are being traced to dealers in virtually every state, as far north as Washington state, and that Texas, Arizona and California are the three most prolific source states, respectively, for firearms subsequently illegally trafficked to Mexico.[36][37] Since 1996, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has traced more than 62,000 firearms smuggled into Mexico from the United States.[31] ATF officials report that 90% of the firearms recovered in Mexico came from U.S. gun dealers,[38][39][40][41] and about 55% of these guns were identified as assault rifles.[42][43] However, the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General reported only 18,585 seized Mexican firearms were successfully traced to the United States in the last five years (2005–2009) out of 66,028 firearms submitted by Mexico to ATF for tracing.[44] In response to the majority claim in a 2009 GAO report, the DHS pointed out that the "majority" were 3,480 U.S. origin guns of 4,000 successfully tracable by ATF out a total of 30,000 firearms seized in Mexico 2004 to 2008.[45] Mexican officials submitted some 32% of the guns seized to the ATF for tracing. The ATF was able to trace less than half of the weapons submitted. Overall, 83% of the guns seized by Mexican authorities could not be traced.[46]

ATF has computerized millions of firearms sales transactions from dealer "out of business" records, and multiple sales reports, effectively creating a large de facto national firearms registry. If the firearm cannot be found in the computerized records, agents contact the manufacturer or importer with a make and serial number, then work their way down the supply chain by telephone or on foot.[47] ATF agents found that one in five of the seized Mexican guns could not be traced.[47]

In 2008, the ATF received 2 million USD to assist in the expansion of Spanish language eTrace software to Mexico and Central America region to assist them with firearms tracking issues, and their immediate goal is to deploy Spanish e-Trace software to all thirty-one states within Mexico.[48] ATF has provided Mexico (and Colombia) with its own centralized tracing center, staffed by nationals, with direct access to United States firearms transaction records maintained by the ATF National Tracing Center.

Since more work is required to make sure those guns stay in the U.S., the U.S. Senate proposes to stop firearms' smuggling now, which will allow Mexican law enforcement to fight drug trafficking more effectively; more importantly, it also takes the Mexican military out of the law enforcement role it has been assigned.[49] The ATF and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently implemented two enforcement initiatives named, Operación Armas Cruzadas (ICE) and Project Gunrunner (ATF). In early August 2008, the FBI is engaged in 146 task force investigations, 12 of them in Texas, aimed at drug-smuggling groups and gang activity.[50]

[edit] Criticism

The Mérida Initiative is called "Plan Mexico" by critics, to point out its similarities to Plan Colombia, through which the U.S. has heavily funded the Colombian military, yet cocaine production has steadily increased and registered a 27% rise in 2007,[51] before declining in 2008 and 2009 [52]

The current plan will require Mexican soldiers accused of human rights abuses in their country to face the civil courts rather than courts-martial. In response, members of the Mexican Congress raised objections because the conditions requiring monitoring of human rights violations are an infringement and violation of Mexican sovereignty,[53] a particular point of sensitivity because Mexico is concerned in exercising its right to govern over its own country without foreign intervention. Mexican authorities are understood to be much happier with the final wording of the package, which contains the phrase “in accordance with Mexican and international lawâ€