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U.S. Anti-Drug Aid to Mexico Lags $1.6 Billion Promise as Violence Rages
The U.S. government has delivered only about 9 percent of the $1.6 billion in drug-war aid promised to Mexico and Central America as Mexican executives say increasing violence is the greatest threat to the economy.
U.S. agencies were forced to delay delivering training and equipment included in the 2008 Merida Initiative because they lacked staff and funding, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report, a draft of which was provided by the office of Congressman Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. The GAO will present the report in testimony before Congress today.
The shortfall in U.S. assistance hurts Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s fight against organized crime, said Adam Isacson, senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights and policy research group. Armed groups in northern Mexico murdered political candidates in this year’s regional elections and have expanded their tactics, including detonating a car bomb in Ciudad Juarez last week.
“When you consider the urgency with which politicians talk about violence in Mexico and the threat it poses to us, to have only delivered 9 percent after two years is pretty remarkable,” Isacson said in a telephone interview from Washington.
Mexico has reported almost 25,000 deaths related to organized crime since Calderon took office in December 2006. The government estimates violence shaves 1 percentage point from gross domestic product each year.
Mexico’s peso has gained 2.5 percent this year against the U.S. dollar, the second-best performer among the 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg, after Japan’s yen.
Delivered Aid
The Merida Initiative, supported by President George W. Bush, pledged aircraft, boats, drug-sniffing dogs and youth education programs with about $1.3 billion of the funding promised to Mexico, the GOA report said. The $141.2 million in assistance delivered thus far includes 5 Textron Inc. Bell helicopters and 13 armored General Motors Co. Chevrolet Suburban sport-utility vehicles, the report showed.
Aid the U.S. committed to the region that hasn’t been delivered as of March 31 includes at least nine Black Hawk helicopters for Mexico and drug interdiction boats for Costa Rica, Belize and El Salvador. Six of the helicopters are set to arrive in Mexico before the end of the year, while the other equipment has no estimated delivery date, according to the GAO, which cited U.S. State Department data.
The impact of violence is the biggest threat to the Mexican economy, according to 57 percent of Mexican executives, up from 49 percent in March and 22 percent in December 2009, a survey published yesterday by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu showed.
Deaths This Year
The second-most cited concern was a U.S. economic slowdown, according to the June 7-29 poll of 381 Mexican business leaders.
“The U.S. economic situation and political discord in our country have lost importance in the view of executives as the main threat for the economic development of Mexico,” Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu said.
Mexico’s drug-related killings in 2010 rose to 7,048 through mid-July, according to Attorney General Arturo Chavez Chavez.
Engel, a Democrat from New York, said the government of President Barack Obama is seeking to quicken the pace of the aid. Engel added that the U.S. must do more to define the goals of the anti-drug spending, which he said “lacks fundamental measurements of success.”
“We must continue to expedite Merida assistance to Mexico,” he said in an e-mail yesterday.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan J. Levin in Mexico City at Jlevin20@bloomberg.net
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