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WORLD> America
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US releases first part of drug aid for Mexico
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-04 09:38 After both nation's lawmakers approved the money this summer, Mexico went public with Operation Clean House, which ensnared a dozen high-ranking police officials, including the former drug czar, on allegations of spying for the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
Colombia has been cleaning house as well: A week before Obama's election, President Alvaro Uribe fired 20 officers, including three generals and four colonels, for negligence in the biggest-ever purge of Colombia's military. Colombia places almost no restrictions on US support, allowing US soldiers and drug agents to operate freely in its territory. But Mexicans have always chafed at American military aid. After the Calderon administration objected, US lawmakers backed off tough restrictions, only conditioning 15 percent on State Department confirmation that Mexico is meeting human rights and police corruption goals. Washington has been unwavering in its support of Calderon's drug fight, even as top members of his security team fell in the corruption scandal. Obama also said Central America should get more than the $65 million in aid it is getting as part of the Merida Initiative. And while Obama has frequently criticized Colombia's human rights record, he pledged his full support for Uribe's fight against the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which sustains its rebellion with cocaine profits. But the US is taking a hard look at how it fights the drug war, starting with the US money and guns that sustain the cartels. The Brookings Institution estimates that 2,000 guns enter Mexico from the United States every day, and many Latin American nations complain that US drug consumption is ultimately responsible for the violence. "The US has to go after the flow of guns and bulk cash and stolen vehicles that go from north to south over our southern border," one of Obama's top Latin America advisers, Dan Restrepo, told The AP. "It's our responsibility to do far more than what we're doing to cut off those flows." The mostly military nature of the aid also is being examined after the US Congress's research arm reported that Plan Colombia has failed to meet its goal of halving illegal drug production in Colombia, and coca cultivation increased 27 percent last year. Vice President-elect Joe Biden commissioned last month's report as Senate Foreign Relations chairman. Democrats in Congress already shifted more than $100 million of Colombia's aid to nonmilitary purposes, such as strengthening the judicial system and responding to the world's worst internal refugee crisis after Sudan. Colombia's military, which has nearly doubled in size under Uribe, worries of more cuts to come. "It would be an error to deprive of aid a government with a clear democratic conviction and a military that is infinitely respected by the Colombian people," Padilla said. |
