Unoriginal Positions on the Merida Initiative
The Merida Initiative would provide $950 million dollars in two years to Mexican law enforcement agencies to support their efforts against resourceful and elusive criminal organizations. The Mexican government needs the aid and the executive branch in the US is willing to provide it. But the US Congress would only grant the funds conditional on the improvement of human rights in Mexico. At these crossroads, the positions of these actors are not precisely original.
First, key members of the US Congress—like Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and member of the Senate’s Committee on Appropriations—believe that Mexican law enforcement agencies are not trustworthy and that tax dollars should not produce further corruption and human rights abuses. This is not the first time the US Congress conditions the use of tax dollars abroad and definitively not the first time the Mexican government is accused of corruption and human rights violations.
Second, high ranking Mexican officials like Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, as well as members of the political parties, have argued that the conditions established by the US Congress for the provision of the funds are not only unilateral, but also represent interference and even infringe national sovereignty. This is not only an old argument that could have been presented by a 19th century Mexican minister of foreign affairs, but also represents a myopic perspective that does not seem to acknowledge that there is nothing wrong with improving human rights in the country.
Third, the White House, right in between the US Congress and the Mexican government, has argued that conditioning aid to Mexico is counterproductive and that the funds are vital in the War Against Drugs both in the US and Mexico.
These three actors seem to agree on the fact that American support is important and necessary since the demand of drugs and the flow of arms from the US have fueled the conflict in Mexico. They also coincide on the structural inability of Mexican institutions to fight the drug cartels. However, this is not enough to guarantee the approval of the bill and the provision of the funds. Indeed, the US Congress, the White House, and the Mexican government need to find a middle ground that keeps constituents pleased with the efforts of the officials and lawmakers that represent them, while making sure that they engage in true bilateral cooperation to solve a multinational problem like drug trafficking and consumption.
June 8th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I don’t see anything wrong with putting conditions on money that is ours. I also think it is obvious that Calderon’s government isn’t being fully honest and that is why they don’t accept the conditions. They know that they are committing human rights abuses and that the money won’t be used properly and they are using the excuse that it is U.S. meddling as a way to hide the truth and try to convince us to take off the conditions. I say we should continue with the conditions and if they don’t like it then tough luck. They can go somewhere else begging for the money.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Here is a link to show you all the great job Mexico is doing with their military. The news link is in spanish, but I’ll give you guys an overview. The Mexican military had set up a checkpoint and 3 people in a car had mechanical problems and could not stop. The soldiers then fired upon the vehicle and killed all 3 people. When the police arrived the soldiers did not allow them to investigate. Furthermore, the soldiers surrounded the vehicle to prevent onlookers to see what occurred. The people in the car were not drug dealers and they had no possesion of drugs either. I think the soldiers were hiding something. Here is the link
http://mx.reuters.com/article/topNews/idMXN0928029320080609
June 11th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
But that is the military’s job, that is their training. Such incidents will also begin to occur on the US side of the border more frequently (i.e. the Marine who shot the boy herding goats along the border). That is the great threat with assigning the military such a significant domestic role. The military should protect against foreign threats not support a police state. Better paid and better trained police need to assume these duties. The Mexican military is also becoming a more influential political player with a larger percentage of the federal budget. One of the few real victories of the Mexican Revolution was limiting the influence of the military under the PRI. But no longer.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Here is yet another link that just came out. It clearly shows that Initiatives such as merida which just dump monetary and military resources into the drug war simply don’t work. The article just came out today on MSNBC and is titled. “shock rise in Colombian coca production” I think it is quite obvious that going down the same old path will result in the same old BS.
Here is the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25242986/
July 1st, 2008 at 11:20 am
[…] Having reached a deadlock, it seems that the inter-parliamentary session between members of the US and Mexican Congresses in early June contributed to the progress of the bill. After the usual exchange of comments between the US Congress and the Mexican and the American governments, the bill was modified and finally approved by everyone. The Bush administration finally got it passed in both chambers, which represents a victory for the administration; and the Mexican authorities stated that the new initiative does not infringe Mexico’s sovereignty and even represents a new bilateral relationship. […]