Last year Mexico was wracked by over 6,000 drug-related executions. No one can deny Mexico’s drug crisis is grave, that the U.S. needs to do something. Rather than addressing the U.S. demand at root, Congress has so far given $700 million through the Merida Initiative in helicopters, surveillance equipment, and other security assistance to prop up the floundering “war on drugs” in Mexico. With no indication that such funds have helped stem the swelling violence in Mexico, and plenty of indication that a similar approach has roundly failed in Colombia, is Congress considering alternative approaches?
No. Just two months after doling out $410 million more of Merida money, Congress is now considering just doing it again. Despite the recession, Congress is contemplating throwing up to $470 million more at Merida as part of a wartime spending bill. Over 70 Mexican civil society organizations recently denounced such military aid as the wrong approach.
The spending bill now goes to a conference committee, whose members will decide what to do with the over $400 million difference in Merida funding between the Senate and House versions--a decision to abandon or perpetuate the failed Merida model. Send the message below today to tell conference committee members that this is not the assistance that Mexico needs (feel free to personalize the message).
Last year Mexico was wracked by over 6,000 drug-related executions. No one can deny Mexico’s drug crisis is grave, that the U.S. needs to do something. Rather than addressing the U.S. demand at root, Congress has so far given $700 million through the Merida Initiative in helicopters, surveillance equipment, and other security assistance to prop up the floundering “war on drugs” in Mexico. With no indication that such funds have helped stem the swelling violence in Mexico, and plenty of indication that a similar approach has roundly failed in Colombia, is Congress considering alternative approaches?