None of $400 million drug-war aid has reached Mexico yet – Houston Chronicle
U.S. wants to be sure drug-fighting aid isn’t pilfered
By STEWART M. POWELL
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
Nov. 14, 2008, 11:32PM
WASHINGTON — Not a dime of the Merida Initiative’s $400 million in promised emergency security assistance has reached Mexico nearly five months after President Bush signed landmark legislation to help the beleaguered neighbor combat drug smugglers’ murderous violence.
The delays are being attributed to delicate U.S.-Mexican negotiations over measures to prevent corruption and protect human rights, the role and number of U.S. personnel in Mexico, and Bush administration steps to satisfy a series of congressional requirements.
Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s panel on the Western Hemisphere, expressed surprise when he learned that none of the aid had reached Mexico.
“Here we are in the middle of November and the House passed the money June 19,” said Green.
“It would seem like they could have moved a little quicker.”
Green said he was writing Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to ask the panel to convene an oversight hearing with State Department officials as soon as possible “to tell us what is going on here.”
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said delayed assistance might jeopardize Mexico’s offensive against vicious drug cartels in domestic warfare that has killed nearly 5,000 people over the last two years as gangs battle for turf to smuggle billions of dollars worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States.
“Mexico is an important ally,” Jackson Lee said. “We should support our strong alliance with them as quickly as we can.”
None of $400 million drug-war aid has reached Mexico yet | Chronicle | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.
