Bush is asking $1.4 billion, for aid in war on drugs

[beentheredonethatagain]

By Héctor Tobar, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 23, 2007
MEXICO CITY -- The White House announced Monday a $1.4-billion military and security package to assist Mexico and several Central American countries in their fight against drug-trafficking groups threatening the region's democracies.

President Bush requested an initial $550-million appropriation from Congress, with the rest of the funds to be distributed over one or two years. The aid is to go for helicopters, police training and communications and data-processing equipment.

The package "delivers vital assistance for our partners in Mexico and Central America, who are working to break up drug cartels and fight organized crime," Bush said. "All of these are urgent priorities of the United States, and the Congress should fund them without delay."

In Mexico, Guatemala and other countries in the region, drug traffickers have infiltrated police agencies, killed scores of public officials and journalists, and gunned down or decapitated rivals. The terror they sow has silenced the media in several Mexican cities and towns along the border with the U.S.

The initial request includes $500 million for Mexico and an additional $50 million for six Central American countries. The aid would mark a tenfold increase in the annual drug assistance now provided to Mexico.

The plan came after months of negotiations between U.S. and Mexican officials. Mexican diplomats had said that Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon would announce the plan at a joint appearance. But in the end, Bush made the official announcement at a Washington news conference.

Mexican officials appeared caught off guard by the Washington news. Just an hour before the Bush news conference, Mexico's Foreign Ministry said it would have no announcement Monday on the proposed aid package.

"The Mexican state must confront organized crime groups that have enormous resources and highly sophisticated weapons," Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said at a news conference. "Given the dimensions of the problem, cooperation with the government of the United States is indispensable."

Democrats on Capitol Hill complained that the Bush administration drafted the proposal without consulting Congress.

"With 'Plan Mexico,' the devil will be in the details, and to this point, details are scarce," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement. "Dropping a $1.4-billion plan on our doorstep without much forewarning makes it harder to build a consensus and develop sound policy."

More than 3,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug wars since January 2006. And drug traffickers are said to be trying to influence next month's presidential election in Guatemala: They are believed to have killed several dozen party officials and candidates in the last year.

Officials called the plan "the Merida Initiative," after the Mexican city where Bush and Calderon met in March to discuss security and other issues. But the Mexican media long ago dubbed the aid package "Plan Mexico," a reference to Plan Colombia, the 2000 initiative under which U.S. taxpayers have spent billions to assist Colombia in battling its drug cartels.

Indeed, the proposal calls for the largest aid package to Latin America since Plan Colombia. But Mexican officials stress that, unlike that plan, this one will involve no U.S. military personnel on the recipient's soil.

"This is not a Plan Colombia," Espinosa said in a recent interview with The Times. "There has been agreement with the Americans in a framework of cooperation with Mexico that does not include military troops."

Plan Colombia has strengthened that country's judicial and police institutions, but has done little to stop the flow of cocaine north. Mexico and Central America are way stations in the shipment of cocaine to the United States: U.S. officials estimate drug traffickers transfer $8 billion to $24 billion in profits from the U.S. to Mexico annually.

Bush announced the new plan as part of his supplemental funding request for military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan for the 2008 fiscal year. Details will be included in the appropriations requests likely to be submitted this week.

Administration officials said the centerpiece of the aid package would be training Mexico's police forces. Mexican diplomats said negotiations dragged on for months because representatives from a dozen police, military and drug enforcement agencies on both sides of the border were involved in drafting the details.

Jorge Chabat, a Mexico City security analyst, said the aid would mark a dramatic change in the quantity of counter- narcotics aid to Mexico.

"Obviously, it doesn't solve the drug problem, but with this help the Mexican government will probably be more effective in fighting the traffickers," he said. "But if Mexico doesn't do much more than accept the money, the help won't be effective. Basically, the big problem here is corruption."

Chabat said the U.S. had long resisted major aid to Mexico because of fears the money would be channeled to police and officials with ties to the drug trade.

"If the U.S. government is willing to give this much money, it suggests they have confidence that Calderon's government will eventually be successful in controlling corruption," he said.

Calderon has made the drug war a signature element of his presidency, sending army troops into several Mexican states and extraditing top cartel operatives to face trial in the U.S

Human rights groups expressed skepticism about the initiative's ability to address issues at the core of the drug trade: high demand for illicit drugs in the U.S., and poverty in Mexico and other countries.

"We need to be clear that while this package may have a positive short-term impact on drug trafficking and violence in Mexico, there should be no expectations that it will stem the flow of drugs into the United States," said Maureen Meyer of the Washington Office on Latin America.



Cecilia Sánchez and María Antonieta Uribe of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...la-home-center

[Woodman]

Originally Posted by beentheredonethatagain

By Héctor Tobar, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 23, 2007
MEXICO CITY -- The White House announced Monday a $1.4-billion military and security package to assist Mexico and several Central American countries in their fight against drug-trafficking groups threatening the region's democracies.

Oh Sure!
That makes a lot of sense.

The "War on Drugs" has been so fucking successful over the last 35 years that it justifies throwing a few billion more at it.

I need to start smoking pot again to understand the logic behind this kind of ridiculous decision.

Hey, while you're at it, why not throw a few trillion dollars at that Persian-Gulf abortion operation in Iraq?

I figure one stupid move deserves another; besids, the war in Iraq is just as successful as the war on drugs, isn't it?

Gotta keep those home-fires burning, support the troops and continue to piss good money after bad.

...that's the American Way!

Reputation Comments on this post:

woody right to the point , as always

[Heretic.Ape.]

I'd like more elaboration on
a) how these countries' democracies are being threatened and
b) how many places in the given explanation you could replace the word "democracy" with "US investors' interests"...

[Woodman]

Originally Posted by Heretic.Ape.

I'd like more elaboration on
a) how these countries' democracies are being threatened and
b) how many places in the given explanation you could replace the word "democracy" with "US investors' interests"...

HAAA,HA, HA!!!

"Threatened"???

The only thing being "threatened" are local drug producing communities in Central & South America.

I doubt that any CIA imports of cocaine will be affected, though; not a plane lost since 1986 when Eugene Hasenfus was shot down and busted for transporting a planeload of cocaine to the USA.

[Panthers007]

I smell Henry Kissinger around here somewhere. 1,4 billion dollars? What's that now? About three days in Iraq? Hmmm....Gotta pay Blackwater somehow. Guess we need to consolidate our drug-running out of Central America again (get a map - Central America is NOT in Kansas). I smell another Chile 1973 brewing.

[beentheredonethatagain]

Originally Posted by Panthers007

I smell Henry Kissinger around here somewhere. 1,4 billion dollars? What's that now? About three days in Iraq? Hmmm....Gotta pay Blackwater somehow. Guess we need to consolidate our drug-running out of Central America again (get a map - Central America is NOT in Kansas). I smell another Chile 1973 brewing.

All I know is that somebodys pockets are lined real well, who ever the hell is on the recieving end of that bundle of cash. How many gallons of gas was taxed to pay for it? or is that our kids problem?

OO7 could sure buy alot of Kurt Vonnegut novels with a piece of that.

[beentheredonethatagain]

MEXICO CITY — Nearly half of a new $500 million U.S. aid package for Mexico would be used to purchase surveillance planes and helicopters so that Mexican police can track drug traffickers who are often better armed and operating faster vehicles than they are.
The new aircraft would help the Mexican government build on its recent success in cracking down on drug cartels, Thomas Shannon, the State Department's top diplomat for Latin America, said Thursday in a telephone interview.

The $500 million, which has not yet been approved by Congress, is the first phase of a $1.4 billion anti-drug package that would be distributed in the next three years. The surveillance aircraft would help Mexican agents chase down the planes and speedboats that carry cocaine from South America to remote areas of Mexico, where it is then taken to the U.S. border.

The U.S. government has credited Mexican President Felipe Calderón's aggressive anti-drug tactics with a reduction in cocaine supply in several U.S. cities. However, the crash last month of a U.S.-registered business jet carrying 3.2 tons of cocaine in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula shows drug planes are still slipping into Mexico.

About $208 million of the first wave of money would go toward eight Bell 412 transport helicopters and two CASA CN-235 surveillance planes, Shannon said. He said the aircraft would be new, avoiding a repeat of the 1990s, when the United States donated more than 70 Vietnam-era Huey helicopters to Mexico. The helicopters were so expensive to maintain that Mexico eventually returned most of them.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...d_N.htm?csp=34

[purplehaze]

I bet he would have thought it would have sucked if this happened from a douche president while he was snortin cocaine in a cult.

[truth]

sweet at least the usa will be getting more drugs now =D

[Panthers007]

You want to jump out of your shoes and yell "Yes!" at the top of your lungs? I thought so...

Go find a release date for the following documentary: American Drug War

This is one of the best expositions on the so-called "War On Drugs" to appear. Ever. It first was run on Showtime cable network here in the Untied Snakes. Try to grab it before the goons burn it.

And no. I don't own stock in the production company.

Reputation Comments on this post:

For mentioning American Drug War.

[MrG]

Swim (as a long time Bill Hicks fan) is a subscriber to Sacred Cow newsletters and got this the other day:

Last night on Bill Maher "Real Time" (HBO)
actor Esai Morales mentioned ADW.

Bill referred to it as "Conspiracy Theory"


Real Time Bill Maher Message board

I wonder how many people remember Bill Maher's famous routine that got him fired from ABC -

"Who is the real coward ? when the United States is launching missiles from floating Iron Islands 200 miles away"

as first being performed by non other then Bill Hicks back in 1992

But maybe thats just "Conspiracy Theory"

And this followed it today:
Bill O'Reilly names Esai Morales "Pin-Head of the day" for mentioning "American Drug War" on Bill Maher last Friday Night


WTF is up wth Bill O'Reilly?

Maybe he's worried about people realising he's been plagiarising Hicks' material if they start to get interested in Sacred Cow's productions.

[Panthers007]

"Sacred cows make the best hamburger!"

- Abbie Hoffman

[Expat98]

Here's an update on this. Gotta help the defense companies sell their helicopters, surveillance planes, and communication equipment, you know? (Did you know that 70% of the money allotted for Plan Colombia never leaves the United States?)

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

http://www.reuters.com/article/lates.../idUSN29382425

Gates urges Congress to avoid "slap" at Mexico

Tue Apr 29, 2008 11:28pm EDT

By David Morgan

MEXICO CITY, April 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday urged Congress to approve a $500 million anti-drug program for Mexico, saying not to do so would be "a slap" against a crucial neighbor beset by drug violence.

Gates, only the second U.S. defense chief ever to visit Mexico, told reporters that U.S. congressional inaction on the program known as the Merida initiative would undermine Washington's ability to aid Mexico's counternarcotics fight.

President George W. Bush proposed the three-year, $1.4 billion initiative last October and put an initial $500 million segment for Mexico in the administration's fiscal 2008 supplemental request for Iraq and Afghanistan war funding.

Gates said he hoped Congress would vote to approve the program by the end of May.

"Failure to do so would be a real slap at Mexico and would be very disappointing and it clearly would make it more difficult for us to help Mexican armed forces and their civilian agencies deal with this difficult problem," the defense chief told reporters.

The initial segment, which also includes $50 million for Central America, would provide the Mexican army and navy with equipment such as helicopters, surveillance planes and inspection equipment to help interdict drug shipments headed for the United States.

Later segments would provide assistance to help build up Mexican law enforcement and judiciary agencies that U.S. critics say are often overwhelmed by corruption.

The measure has come under scrutiny by Democrats in Congress, including some who would prefer to see less emphasis on aid to the Mexican military, U.S. Senate aides said.

One knowledgeable source said U.S. lawmakers have discussed the possibility of scaling back the overall program by as much as $400 million.

BORDER SECURITY

Bush administration officials view the program as a possible lever for deepening U.S.-Mexican military relations at a time when Washington needs Mexico's help in shoring up border security against potential threats from Islamist militants.

"There is a greater picture. It has to do with counternarcotics but it also has to do with protecting national air space and maritime boundaries," said one senior defense official.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has won praise from Washington for deploying about 25,000 troops and federal police to fight half a dozen drug-smuggling cartels since he took office in December 2006. There have been more than 900 drug killings in Mexico this year.

The U.S. State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report identified Mexico as a major source of heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana and the transit country for 90 percent of the cocaine that reaches the United States.

The Pentagon sees crime, drugs and street gangs as the top security problems facing Latin America and wants the region's soldiers, not its police, to tackle them.

But U.S. officials and analysts say the Calderon government has already spent billions of dollars on its own to combat drug traffickers and that its successes have led to a reduction in cocaine and methamphetamines in the United States.

Armand Peschard-Sverdrup of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies agreed with Gates' position that U.S. congressional failure could insult Mexico.

"You'll have the president of Mexico looking like he had to walk away empty handed, and that could conceivably be seen as yet another snub," he said.

[fnord]

This is a strange change from someplace that recenetly was all for decriminlizing drugs.

Why cant the U$A stay inside there own borders?

[Expat98]

Originally Posted by fnord

This is a strange change from someplace that recenetly was all for decriminlizing drugs.

Here is an article about Mexican opposition to this plan. But see the last paragraph: "It is clear that Plan Mérida is drawing heated criticism in Mexico. What is less clear is whether that opposition can successfully block the initiative on the Mexican side. Right now, the best prospects for that appear to lie in the US Congress."

In Mexico, Opposition to Plan Merida Emerges

This week, high-level US and Mexican officials spoke out in favor of Plan Mérida, the three-year, $1.4 billion anti-drug package designed to assist the Mexican government in its ongoing battle with violent drug trafficking organizations. But at the same time officials like Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were visiting Latin America to seek support for the plan, at a forum on drug policy in Culiacán, Sinaloa, home of one of the most feared of the drug trafficking groups, the Sinaloa Cartel, there was little but criticism of the proposed aid package.

Since he took office at the beginning of last year, Mexican President Felipe Calderón has deployed some 30,000 Mexican army troops in the fight against the so-called cartels, which provide much of the cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana coming into the United States. US officials have praised Mexican President Felipe Calderón for his aggressive efforts against the cartels and seek to reward his government -- and especially the Mexican military -- by providing high-tech equipment, training, and other goods to the Mexican armed forces.

But despite the massive military deployments in border cities from Tijuana in the west to Reynosa and Matamoros in the east, as well as in the states of Guerrero, Michoacán, and Sinaloa -- all traditional drug-producing areas -- and the high praise from Washington, Calderon's drug war has not gone well. Roughly 2,000 people were killed in Mexico's drug war last year, and with this year's toll already approaching 1,000, 2008 looks to be even bloodier. Yet the flow of drugs north and guns and cash south continues unimpeded.

Bush administration and Mexican officials met over a period of months last year and early this year to craft a joint response that would see $500 million a year in assistance to Mexico, primarily in the form of helicopters and surveillance aircraft. Known as Plan Mérida, after the Mexican city in which it took final form, the assistance package is now before the US Congress.

Congressional failure to fund the package would be "a real slap at Mexico," Secretary of Defense Gates said in Mexico City Tuesday as he met with General Guillermo Galván, the Mexican defense minister, Government Secretary Juan Mouriño, and Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa. "It clearly would make it more difficult for us to help Mexican armed forces and their civilian agencies deal with this difficult problem," he told reporters.

The same day, Attorney General Mukasey was in San José, Costa Rica, where in a speech to justice ministers from across the hemisphere, he, too, urged Congress to approve the aid package. Drugs, gangs, and violent crime on the border are "a joint problem -- and we must face it jointly," he said. "By working together, we can strengthen the rule of law and the administration of justice, and we can combat transnational criminal threats," Mukasey said.

That is what the Mexican government wants to hear. It negotiated the aid package, and although President Calderón's ruling National Action Party (PAN) does not hold a majority in the Mexican congress, it can count on the support of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) on the aid deal. Of the three major parties in the Mexican congress, only the left-leaning Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) is raising concerns about the package, but the PRD is not strong enough in the congress to block it.

But while official Mexico may want passage of the package, a number of Mexican intellectuals, academics, political figures, and former military officers attacked the plan to beef up the Mexican military for US drug war aims at a forum this week at the International Forum on Illicit Drugs hosted by the Culiacán weekly newsmagazine Ríodoce.

"The US wants to fight drugs, crime, and terrorism. Bush and Calderón have been talking about a new Plan Colombia, but the anti-drug policies pursued so far have been a failure," said Ríodoce managing editor Ismael Bojórquez, as he opened the conference. "The phenomenon of drug trafficking is very complex and reaches deeply into the fabric of our society. The system benefits from the drug trade; the profits from it enter into our economy and have benefited many businesses. Few sectors have been able to resist the easy money. In a country that has not been able to improve conditions for poor Mexicans, the drug trade is an attractive alternative," he explained.

"Our government has authorized the use of federal police and even soldiers to attack the drug trade, but this strategy is mistaken and the government has wasted million of dollars that could have gone to productive ends," Bojórquez added.

"Our foreign policy has been subordinated to that of the Americans, the policemen of the world," said Mexican political figure Jorge Ángel Pescador Osuna, the former Mexican consul general in Los Angeles. "Fortunately, this Plan Mérida initiative has yet to be approved by the US Congress, and hopefully, the voice of Mexico will be heard in this debate. We think there are real solutions that are within the grasp of the government and civil society," he said.

"They want to spend $500 million the first year, half of which will go to buy military equipment and advanced technologies," said Pescador Osuna. "My first response is how nice. But then I have to ask why we should use the military in areas that are outside its competence. What we need here is to strengthen our democracy, and we will not accomplish that by using the military for civilian law enforcement."

"These kinds of anti-drug policies that focus on policing are overwhelmingly simplistic," concurred Colombian economist Francisco Thoumi, director of the Center for Drug and Crime Studies at the University of Rosario in Bogota. "They do not attack the problem at the base," he argued. "The drug trade is a capitalist industry, and it accepts the losses of interdiction and eradication as a cost of doing business. This kind of enforcement looks good on TV and makes politicians and police happy, but the industry goes on, and this doesn't solve the problem."

"The idea with this is to give power to the armed forces," said Luis Astorga, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and head of a UNESCO program devoted to understanding the ramifications of the international drug trade. "Calderon is doing nothing more or less than reconfiguring the anti-drug struggle in Mexico by putting it in the hands of the military. One question is how long this will last," he noted.

General Francisco Gallardo, a leading advocate of human rights within the Mexican armed forces, was also critical. "The context for Plan Mérida is this new world order where the US struggle for hegemony with China and the European Union," he argued. "The US has militarized its foreign policy, and it wants us to militarize our drug enforcement. But the function of the army is to defend the sovereignty of the state, not to fight crime. That is the job of the police," he said.

"Involving the military under the auspices of Plan Mérida does not respond to Mexican interests," Gallardo said. "It has a bad effect on the institutional and judicial order of the nation. The soldiers who kill innocents are absolved; they have impunity," he said, citing the cases of several mass killings by soldiers in Sinaloa, including an incident in Santiago de Caballero in the mountains above Culiacán in late March, in which four unarmed young men in a Hummer were killed by soldiers on an anti-drug mission. "The drug trade is a matter for police and the justice system, not the military," Gallardo concluded.

While the Bush and Calderón administrations are seeking to steamroll opposition to the proposed aid package, it is clear that Plan Mérida is drawing heated criticism in Mexico. What is less clear is whether that opposition can successfully block the initiative on the Mexican side. Right now, the best prospects for that appear to lie in the US Congress.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/...loa_drug_forum

[beentheredonethatagain]

today no one is talking war on drugs as far as Hill or bama, or j mcCain

[Panthers007]

Originally Posted by fnord

This is a strange change from someplace that recenetly was all for decriminlizing drugs.

Why cant the U$A stay inside there own borders?

U.S. OUT OF NORTH AMERICA!

- great t-shirts.

[Nature Boy]

Originally Posted by beentheredonethatagain

today no one is talking war on drugs as far as Hill or bama, or j mcCain

That's because the War on Drugs isn't even questioned any more. There were only a few candidates that brought it up earlier in the race: Ron Paul (R), Dennis Kucinich (D) and a handful of others who were quickly eliminated. It's a MASSIVE issue but somehow they've managed to totally squeeze it out of the picture. The media can take a large chunk of the blame for that one. It's not in the top ten issues, is it even in the top twenty?!

[Panthers007]

It's a "Third-Rail" issue in politics - if you touch it, you're dead.

Reputation Comments on this post:

That sums up the political problem in one sentence

[cosmicruler]

what the war on terror aint going too well so start a new war.........!!???
whats gunna happen this time??the cia gunna stockpile all the drugs they confiscate so they can dictate world drug prices to help fund more wars...??
or are they gunna stockpile them to get all the troops heading home from iraq hooked on smack...kinda like vietnam...

nice 1 george w bush...your a fucking terrorist and a wanker!!!!

Reputation Comments on this post:

today this talk is a flame , tom orrow aint looking too good either

[Expat98]

Here's an update. Notice how Bush has attached this proposal onto the request for emergency war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. So if you don't support this package for Mexico then you're supporting terrorism and failing to support our troops.

May 8, 2008

Bush pitches funding plan for military aid to Mexico

President seeks $500 million to help fight the war on drug cartels

By STEWART M. POWELL
Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Wednesday showcased his request for $500 million in U.S. military assistance to help Mexico combat murderous drug cartels in a bid to build congressional support for the more contentious part of his spending package — the latest multibillion dollar request for emergency war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush crafted plans for the U.S. military assistance to Mexico at a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon 14 months ago and sketched details last October, including money for military equipment such as helicopters, training and assistance in combating corruption in the criminal justice system.

Council of the Americas

Bush pitched his financing plan to the Council of the Americas, an organization of international businesses that backs free trade and democracy. The U.S. military assistance — $500 for Mexico and $50 million for Central American nations — will help them "deal with the scourge of these unbelievably wealthy and unbelievably violent drug kingpins," Bush told the organization's conference at the State Department.

Administration officials have said the remaining $900 million originally proposed in the Merida Initiative will be requested later.

Some members of the Houston-area congressional delegation have been leading advocates of helping Mexico beef up security forces along the U.S.-Mexico border to help stem a wave of drug-related killings that claimed an estimated 2,700 lives last year.

"There is a war going on down there and if Mexico loses that war it will be worse in our own country," said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston. "If Mexico can control these drug traffickers, it means they don't come here."

Bush pivoted off the remarks at the Council of the Americas to appeal for favorable congressional action on his entire emergency spending request, not just the tiny share set aside for U.S. military assistance to Mexico and Central American nations.

Bush, Democrats differ

The total for the supplemental spending package was in flux. The Bush administration sought at least $108 billion to finance operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through Sept. 30. The House Democratic leadership fashioned a spending package of nearly $195 billion that included domestic spending that Bush has threatened to veto.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill may get a more detailed look at the program's spending blueprint today when the House Foreign Affairs Committee's panel on Latin America hears testimony from the State Department's top Latin America specialist, Thomas Shannon.

Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy, a non-profit think tank that opposes the Merida Initiative, said the administration included financing for the program within the emergency war supplemental bill because it would be ''hard to strip out any part of that spending package.''

Details of the spending proposal were not made available by the White House.

But Isacson's organization published on its Web site (www.ciponline.org) two State Department documents that he said had been used to brief members of Congress on details of the Merida Initiative.

The documents showed that most of the $132.5 million designated to bolster Mexican law enforcement agencies would be poured into the Mexican Federal Police Force with another $112 million being used to assist operations by Mexico's attorney general and the criminal justice system.

Culberson opposes aid

Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, said he opposed providing the assistance to Mexico. "These resources should go to our own law enforcement officers rather than Mexico's," Culberson said.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, said he favored providing U.S. military assistance. ''We must fight to keep these drug cartels from operating with impunity on our border," he said.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, vowed to work in the Senate to win the requested money.

But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, opposed including the funds in the war supplemental. A spokesman said Cornyn "believes additional funding requests should be reviewed on their merits through the normal appropriations process."

stewart.powell@chron.com

[beentheredonethatagain]

it sounds like this issue has Republicans split.

[cosmicruler]

this is just an attempt by america to reclaim a monopoly on the multi multi billion dollar a year heroin and cocaine trades by starting a "WAR ON DRUGS".
What actually happens to these drugs when theyre confiscated??...resold on the US marketand to US troops maybe??

Fuck the US Army and the CIA are the terrorists and the biggest drug cartel in the world.My personal hate and that of many many others grows daily....!

[Expat98]

Another update. It has now been approved by both houses of Congress.

I'm not sure where they think the money is going to come from since the U.S. is basically bankrupt at this point, but that's another story.

**********

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/wo...=1&oref=slogin

Congress Trims Bush’s Mexico Drug Plan

By MARC LACEY
Published: May 23, 2008

MEXICO CITY — The United States Congress has scaled back on President Bush’s anti-drug plans for Mexico and put human rights conditions on some of the aid, drawing fire from some Mexicans who accuse American lawmakers of meddling in their country’s internal affairs.

As part of a broader emergency appropriations bill that remains under discussion and could face a presidential veto, the Senate on Thursday approved $350 million to aid Mexico in what has become a pitched battle against drug trafficking. The Senate would also give $100 million to countries in Central America that are in drug wars of their own, as well as to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Besides reducing the Bush administration’s request, which would have sent $500 million to Mexico and $50 million to Central America, the Senate adopted language similar to that in a recently passed House bill that would hold up a quarter of the money until the State Department ruled that Mexico was meeting certain human rights markers. The House approved $400 million for Mexico, one of several differences that will be worked out in a House-Senate conference in the coming weeks.

The Senate measure still represents a major increase in aid to Mexico in a single year, legislative aides said, reflecting bipartisan concern over the fact that an estimated 90 percent of the cocaine entering the United States comes through Mexican territory.

But at issue is the performance of Mexico’s army and the police, which have been accused by human rights organizations of engaging in abuses as they chase down the country’s drug cartels.

“Human rights abuses in the army are routinely investigated by the military itself, and that leads to impunity,” said Tamara Taraciuk, Mexico researcher for Human Rights Watch. “The big issue is accountability.”

To address that, the Congressional plans ask the secretary of state to report on whether Mexico was prohibiting testimony obtained through torture and trying soldiers accused of abuses in civilian courts, among other conditions.

Since President Felipe Calderón of Mexico started his drug war in 2007, more than 200 law enforcement officers have been killed, among them at least two dozen top commanders. The overall body count is estimated to be 1,300 people so far this year, on track to exceed the roughly 2,500 drug-related killings in 2007.

The Bush administration has pointed to a recent surge of violence as evidence of the need for the so-called Mérida Initiative, which is the name given to the spending deal struck last year by Mr. Bush and Mr. Calderón. But Congress was left out of the initial deal making, resulting in hard feelings when Mr. Bush submitted the plan.

The trims to the president’s plan, and the strings attached by lawmakers in Washington, clearly irked some Mexicans. The Mexican government was working behind the scenes in Washington to soften some of the legislative language, Congressional aides said. The newspaper La Jornada said in an editorial this week that it was “a grotesque and absurd pretension” that the United States, which has human rights issues of its own in its detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, should be scrutinizing Mexico’s armed forces.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, dismissed such criticism in a speech on Wednesday introducing the spending plan.

“Since when is it bad policy, or an infringement of anything, to insist that American taxpayer dollars not be given to corrupt, abusive police or military forces in a country whose justice system has serious flaws and rarely punishes official misconduct?” he said. “This is a partnership, not a giveaway.”

Mr. Bush’s proposal called for spending for military hardware, mostly helicopters, but also programs to root out corruption within law enforcement agencies and increase the protection of witnesses. The Congressional plans would scrutinize any money directed to the army.

[Panthers007]

Something tells me that "corruption in government" is not defined the same way as Mr. Bush would define it - and I would.

Once again: "The War On Drugs" is a third-rail issue. Any politician who touches it will likely be killed. But that is no excuse for being a coward and not standing up to a tyrant. Viva Pat Leahy. Shame on the chickens.