Mérida Initiative
[1] With the declared aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational organized crime and money laundering, assistance between the countries included training, equipment and intelligence.
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 excludes the money sent by wire transfers.
[11] The operation, commanded by General José Hernández Toledo,[12] was a flop with no major drug lord captures and many reports of abuse and repression in rural zones.
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.
In January 2012 the Mexican government updated its official count to 47,515 deaths since President Calderón began his military campaign against drug trafficking in 2006.
[24] Another development during that period was 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.
The bill specified that 15% of the funds be dependent on Mexico making headway in four areas relating to human-rights issues, and on which the U.S. Secretary of State would have to report periodically to Congress.
[30][31] 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.
The bill was an attempt at a comprehensive public security package that sought 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.
While this included equipment and training, it did not involve any cash transfers or money to be provided directly to the Government of Mexico or its private contractors.
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.
[36] The Mérida Initiative included $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 there were concerns regarding how that would be achieved.
As reported by ATF, the most common "traced" firearms now included AR type rifles, Kalashnikov derivatives, semiautomatic pistols, and a variety of assorted handguns and shotguns.
[50] In a 2009 GAO report, the DHS pointed out that there were only 3,480 U.S. origin guns of 4,000 weapons successfully traced by ATF out a total of 35,000 firearms seized in Mexico between 2004 and 2008.
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.
A growing number of citizens were concerned that the Mexican military was "becoming too powerful in the face of state weakness – a chilling reminder of a more repressive era.
[63] Almost half of Mexican police officers examined in 2008 failed background and security tests, a figure that rose to nearly 9 of 10 policemen in the border state of Baja California.
[citation needed] Others criticized the continued support of combating the supply of drugs rather than focusing on prevention, treatment and education programs to curb demand.
[66] Human rights activists and other policy groups criticize the Initiative's lack of a robust framework for institution building and the existence of coerced confessions, often through the use of torture.
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.
[77] 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.
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.
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.
[36] The newly elected president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, declared in May 2019 that Mexico is withdrawing from the Mérida Initiative, and will instead seek a pact in support of a development plan for Central America to control migration.
[1] That October, after the 200th anniversary of Mexican Independence and relations with the US, the two governments announced the U.S.-Mexico Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safe Communities an agreement intended to replace the Mérida Initiative and focus more on economic development.
