Guadalajara -International drug trafficking continues to take a sizable bite out of the Mexican economy, as MGR reported yesterday. Mexican states will spend $1.17 billion on security in 2013. But it's a huge cost for its partner to the north, too.
In the past five years the U.S. has given Mexico well over a billion dollars in domestic security assistance under the Mérida Initiative, a 2007 agreement which provides for U.S. training and equipping of Mexican security forces, and joint intelligence gathering operations. It owes another half billion under the plan approved and funded annually by congress.
But other nations are clamoring for assistance, too. More than a year ago a self-described, "almost bankrupt" Guatemala called for U.S. help in fighting drug cartels. About the same time Honduras reported it had been "invaded by drug traffickers" who ship tons of cocaine to the U.S., "where the customers are." In February the Guatemalan ambassador to Mexico warned of a growing Los Zeta drug cartel presence in his country. Soon after Mexican drug traffickers murdered two Guatemalan National Police agents near the Chiapas border.
All these countries view the issue the same way. Since most of the product is going to customers in the United States, it stands to reason, they argue, that the U.S. should pick up a big part of the tab. Narcotics traffickers began to shift operations to Central America many months ago after years of pursuit by the Mexican military, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, leaders in those countries and an Associated Press study earlier this year. Expanding U.S. presence in Latin drug wars.
Today Nicaragua joined the chorus.
Nicaraguan vice president Omar Halleslevens said the U.S. must increase its financial aid to Central America to help carry the fight against drug traffickers. Nicaragua's president, Daniel Ortega, is one of several Latin leaders who will meet with president Obama in Costa Rica next month. Halleslevens's comments to a press conference were a heads up to Washington on issues which the country plainly plans to put on the table.
"We must have greater cooperation from the United States to confront the threats which today have become virtually a matter of national security. We have to defend ourselves, or they'll overrun us. We have to have more assistance from the U.S. to deal with all types of organized crime connected to narcotics operations: money laundering, trafficking in persons, the stolen vehicle trade and others," said Halleslevens, who told reporters that 85% of the cocaine moving through Nicaragua comes from Colombia and is destined for the U.S. market. Obama has previously acknowledged that American drug demand is responsible for damage done to Mexico and other Latin nations.
President Obama will confer first with Mexico's Enrique Peña Nieto May 2-4. Then he'll travel to Costa Rica for a second round of discussions with the leader of that country and the chief executives of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Belize. Obama's visit to Costa Rica will be the first by an American president in more than 14 years. The last U.S. president to meet Central American leaders was Bill Clinton in March 1999, during their conference in Antigua, Guatemala.
Mar. 31 - Mexican drug traffickers find ready assistance in mules carrying American passports
Oct. 13, 2011 - Drug cartels present greater threat to U.S. security than Iran, says State Department
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