Mexican investment in narco war almost $21 billion USD, claims State Department

The Mérida Initiative is a 2007 agreement between the United States and Mexico which provides for U.S. training and equipping of Mexican military and police forces, as well as for intelligence gathering and sharing. The name derives from meetings held by former President George Bush and President Calderón in Mérida, the Yucatán's capital, that same year. The package promised to Mexico came with a $1.6 billion price tag.

As part of the initiative the United States has already given Mexico's security forces 14 helicopters, including three Black Hawks. Yesterday, in a special ceremony in Veracruz attended by U.S. ambassador to Mexico Anthony Wayne, a new surveillance airplane was delivered, together with armored vehicles and equipment specially tailored for use in the drug war. On December 8, another Black Hawk is scheduled for delivery.

U.S. officials say that Mexico has received over $700 million of the total package promised under the Mérida Initiative. And administration officials say that president Obama intends to award additional equipment, training and technology upgrades by the end of 2011, which will raise the aggregate total to $900 million, or more than half of that promised.

The question some ask is, how much is Mexico itself investing in the fight? Today's edition of El Universal, a respected and reliable Mexico City newspaper, says the Felipe Calderón administration has invested over $13 USD for every dollar spent by the United States under the Mérida Initiative. The paper cites the U.S. State Dept. as its source for the claim, which it attributes only to a "spokesman" for the department. If the information is accurate, by the end of next year, when the initiative has been fully funded, Mexico will have spent over $20.8 billion USD on the drug war - all of it since December 2006.

Congress approved the $1.6 billion plan in 2008 at the urging of then president Bush. Payments and transfers under the program have been slow coming, however, at times leading to frustration on the part of Mexican officials.

Mérida Initiative: http://mexicogulfreporter-supplement.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-us-ambassador-to-mexico-stands.html.