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Mérida Initiative

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

In seeking partnership from 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, and doesn't include all 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 in illicit drug proceeds 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, so the U.S. Congress passed legislation in late June 2008 to provide Mexico with $400 million and Central American countries with $65 million this year for the Mérida Initiative. The initiative was announced on 22 October 2007 and signed into law on June 30, 2008.

Background

Main article: Mexican Drug War
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, [4] while 1100 metric tons of marijuana are smuggled each year from Mexico.[5] Still, the drug cartels enjoy no support from the mexican public.

In 1990, just over half the cocaine imported into the U.S. came trough Mexico. By 2007, that had risen to more than 90 percent, according to U.S. State Department estimates.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] It is estimated that during 2006, there were about 2000 drug-related violent deaths,[9] about 2300 deaths during 2007, and about 2500 deaths during the first 5 months of 2008.[10][11] Many of the dead were gang members killed by rivals or by the government, some have been bystanders.[12] At least 450 police officers and soldiers have been killed since January 2007.[13]

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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16]

Funding

The U.S. Congress has now authorized $1.6 USD billion for the three-year initiative. For the first year, 2008, the Mérida Initiative provides Mexico with $400 million ($100 million less than originally requested) for military and law enforcement training and equipment, as well as technical advice and training to strengthen the national justice systems. Only about $204 million of that, however, will be earmarked for the military for the purchase of eight used transport helicopters and two small surveillance aircraft. No weapons are included in the plan.[17][18] 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.[19][20]

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 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.[21]

Much of the funding will never leave the United States. It will go toward the purchase of eight Bell 412 helicopters, two small Cessna 208 airplanes, 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.

For fiscal year 2009, an additional $450 million is being requested for Mexico and $100 million for Central America and the Caribbean.[22]

Plan

Helicopter Bell 412
Cessna 208 Caravan

The Mérida Initiative will provide funding for:[23]

  • 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.
  • Eight used Bell 412 EP helicopters and two Cessna 208 Caravan surveillance airplanes to Mexico.
  • Equipment, training and community action programs in Central American countries to implement anti-gang measures and expand the reach of these measures.

No money or weapons will be provided to Mexico or Central America.

Smuggling of firearms

File:Merida initiative weapons seized.jpg
Seized weapons: M72 LAW, hand grenades, M4 carbine and a Minimi light machine gun
Colt AR-15
File:Rifle AK47 Olive Drab.gif
AK-47 [3]
M4 Carbine with grenade launcher.

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. [24] Mexican government officials suspect that corrupt customs officials, on both sides of the border, help smuggle weapons into Mexico; the most common of these firearms now includes the Colt AR-15 .223 caliber assault rifle, the AK-47 machine gun, 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.[25][26][27] It is believed that some of these high power weapons were stolen from U.S. military bases.[28]

An in-depth 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 sellers 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 illegally trafficked to Mexico.[29][30] A 2008 report by the ATF estimates that 90 to 95 percent of the weapons found in Mexico are traced to the U.S.A.[31] The ATF has received $2 million to assist in the expansion of Spanish 'e-Trace' 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 the Republic of Mexico.[32]

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.[33] The ATF and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently implemented two enforcement initiatives named, Operación Armas Cruzadas (ICE) and Project Gun Running (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.[34]

Critics

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 registering a 27% increase in 2007.[35]

The current plan will require Mexican soldiers accused of human rights abuses in their country to face the civil courts rather than court-martials. In response, members of the Mexican Congress raised objections because the conditions requiring monitoring of human rights violations are a infringement and "violation of Mexican sovereignty",[36] a particular point of sensitivity because Mexico lost almost half its territory to the United States after the 1840s Mexican-American War. 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 law” in at least three of the conditions relating to human rights.[37] The latest bill draft requires that $73.5 million must be used for judicial reform, institution-building, human rights and rule-of-law issues.

File:MDW.JPG
Mexican soldiers stand over a detained man after a deadly gun battle in Apatzingán, Michoacán.

Already some are concerned with the current amount of human rights abuses committed by the armed forces, some 800 in the first five months of 2008, double the rate from the year before. Most claims are filed for misconduct or illegal searches; yet some, though far fewer, are as serious as rape and torture. A growing number of citizens are concerned that the Mexican military is "becoming too powerful in the face of state weakness – a chilling reminder of a more repressive era."[38] Calderón's use of the army in fighting drug cartels has been questioned by rights groups, but political analysts say troops are his only real option in a country where as many as half the police could be in the pay of drug gangs.[39]

Some recent examples of Mexico’s paramilitary abuses include the sexual assault and rape of dozens of female detainees by police in San Salvador Atenco, and the disappearances of dozens of teachers in the rebellious state of Oaxaca in 2006, as well as the killings of seven innocent bystanders,[40] including the American journalist Brad Will by off-duty policemen.[41]

Others criticize the continued support of combating the supply of drugs rather than focusing on prevention, treatment and education programs to curb demand. Studies show that military interdiction efforts fail because they ignore the root cause of the problem: U.S. demand. During the early to mid-1990s, the Clinton administration ordered and funded a major cocaine policy study by the Rand Drug Policy Research Center; the study concluded that $3 billion USD should be switched from federal and local law enforcement to treatment. The report said that treatment is the cheapest and most effective way to cut drug use. President Clinton's drug czar's office rejected slashing law enforcement spending.[42]

Torture training

Human rights activists and other policy groups criticize the Initiative's lack of a robust framework for institution building and the existence coercion of confessions, often through the use of torture.[43] In early July 2008, a video emerged of city police officers from León, Guanajuato, being taught torture methods by a U.S. security firm instructor; the video created an uproar in Mexico, which has struggled to eliminate torture in law enforcement. It is still unclear how this event will affect the Mérida Initiative, as it can be used both to reinforce the need to train security forces on human rights or to cancel the initiative altogether.[44][45][46] The training took place in April 2006 and lasted for 12 days.[47] León Mayor, Vicente Guerrero Reynoso, initially insisted that the training would continue, justifying the training as a means of withstanding torture under kidnapping scenarios. However, because of the public furor and under pressure from federal and state authorities, he suspended the program.

A portion of the funding under the Mérida Initiative will be released only if the U.S. secretary of state reports that Mexico bars the use of testimony that has been obtained through torture, a policy that is in line with Mexican law but often is not observed.[48]

Progress

On July 10, 2008, the Mexican government announced plans to nearly double the size of its Federal Preventive Police force in order to reduce the role of the military in combating drug trafficking.[49] The plan, known as the Comprehensive Strategy Against Drug Trafficking, also involves purging local police forces of corrupt officers. Elements of the plan have already been set in motion, including a massive police recruiting and training effort intended to reduce the country's dependence in the drug war on the military.[50] As part of the initiative, Mexico is already receiving information about suspicious ships leaving ports in Colombia and Ecuador.

On August 2008, Mexico anounced that two states, Chihuahua and Nuevo León, are pioneering public trials, in which the state must prove its case. Before, the accused bore the burden of proof, and trials were secret. Mexico's president hopes this will bring transparency and accountability to the legal process and to end a tradition of corruption, shoddy investigations, coerced testimony, and an extremely low conviction rate.[51]

By October 2008, the aid had not been transferred yet.

Notes

  1. ^ Americans finance Mexican traffickers
  2. ^ Mexican Drug Cartels Move North
  3. ^ GAO Report on Drug Control, October 25, 2007
  4. ^ "Mexico Security Memo: July 28, 2008". Stratfor. July 28, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-20. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ "National Drug Threat Assessment 2006", Marijuana - Strategic findings, U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center, January 2006, retrieved 2008-08-20 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |coeditors= and |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  6. ^ Bernd Debusmann: In Mexico's drug wars, bullets and ballads
  7. ^ "Mexican government sends 6,500 to state scarred by drug violence". International Herald Tribune. 2002-12-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Merida Initiative Will Help Battle Drug Trafficking
  9. ^ Mexico's drug war death toll tops 2,000 (2006)
  10. ^ No. 2 police officer in Mexican border city shot
  11. ^ Mexico drug wars suspected in deadly shootout
  12. ^ More kids caught in Mexico drug-war crossfire
  13. ^ Death toll
  14. ^ The 'Merida Initiative' Proposal
  15. ^ Waving, not drowning
  16. ^ Deaths climb in Mexico's drug war
  17. ^ Mexico's 2008 defence budget goes under review
  18. ^ Bush pushes Mexico money in Iraq bill
  19. ^ Welcome for US aid for Mexico’s drug war
  20. ^ House OKs funds to fight Mexican drug cartels
  21. ^ Central America and the Mérida Initiative
  22. ^ Merida Initiative Update: Mexico's Fight Against Organized Crime
  23. ^ The Mérida Initiative Fact Sheet
  24. ^ Editorial: Guns, ammo head south as drugs flow into U.S.
  25. ^ TIME -Civilian Victims in Mexico's Drug War
  26. ^ Time - Mexico's Narco-Insurgency
  27. ^ Detienen a 11 narcos al catear 3 casas en el DF
  28. ^ Armas robadas en EU, en poder de narcos
  29. ^ Mexico's massive illegal weapons
  30. ^ Feds raid gun store tied to Mexican drug cartels
  31. ^ AP: ATF says most illegal guns in Mexico come from US
  32. ^ Statement by the Assistant Dir. for Field Operations of the ATF
  33. ^ Report to the U.S. Senate - page 9
  34. ^ U.S. officials praise Mexico for anti-drug efforts
  35. ^ Carroll, Roy (June 19 2008). "Colombia's coca crop booms despite US-backed crackdown". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-08-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  36. ^ Human rights monitoring, a "violation" of Mexican Sovereignity: [1] [2]
  37. ^ Welcome for US aid for Mexico’s drug war
  38. ^ Military abuses rise in Mexican drug war
  39. ^ Reuters -Mexico rights panel slams army for drug war abuse
  40. ^ Mexico rights panel slams army for drug war abuse
  41. ^ Mexican torture videos reveal ties with US military contractors
  42. ^ Rydell, C. Peter (1994). "Controlling Cocaine: Supply Versus Demand Programs" (PDF). Rand Drug Policy Research Center. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
    *Cauchon, Dennis (1994). "White House balks at study urging more drug treatment". Usa Today: 2A. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
    *Stokes, Doug (2005). America's Other War: Terrorizing Colombia. Zed Books. ISBN 1-84277-547-2. OCLC 156752200. {{cite book}}: External link in |title= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) p. xii, 87
    *Donnelly, John (2000). "Narcotics Bill Reopens Drug War Debate Colombia Measure Spurs New Look At Us Policy". The Boston Globe. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
    *Cochran, John (1999). ""A Closer Look"". ABC News. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
    *Douglas, William (1994). "Best Weapon In Drug War Is Treatment". Newsday: A15. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
    *Douglas, William (1994). "U.S. Should Boost Therapy Of Coke Addicts, Study Urges". The Times Union. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  43. ^ Mexican police in 'torture' class?
  44. ^ CNN News- Police 'torture' videos cause uproar in Mexico
  45. ^ ABC News- Police 'Torture' Videos Cause Uproar in Mexico
  46. ^ LA Times- Police 'torture' videos in Mexico cause worry
  47. ^ Mexican torture videos reveal ties with US military contractors
  48. ^ Helping Mexico and Human Rights
  49. ^ Mexico Plan Adds Police To Take On Drug Cartels
  50. ^ Desarrollo institucional de la SSP
  51. ^ ILIFF, LAURENCE (August 18, 2008). "2 Mexican states trying out new justice system". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 2008-08-19. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

See also

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