Some in Mexico say U.S. is slacking in war on drugs

The United States has offered for years to give Mexico aid to help fight the drug cartels.

Mexican presidents have demurred, worrying it would impact their nation’s sovereignty.

But President Felipe Calderón has stepped up the fight against the cartels, sending the military against them. He has also accepted U.S. assistance through the Mérida Initiative, including intelligence, equipment and technology.

“I’ve been a congressman for 28 years and I’ve never seen better cooperation,” said U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi.

The U.S. consul in Matamoros, Michael Barkin, agreed.

“The events of the last two months — like the capture of two important heads of cartels — have shown that the Mexican government is taking a very aggressive approach in this fight,” Barkin said. “That is a very difficult thing to do, and the Mexican government is doing very well.”

With the Mérida Initiative, Congress allotted $1.4 billion for Mexico over three years, said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, a supporter of the initiative.

In 2007, Calderon and President George W. Bush met in the Mexican city of Mérida to sign an agreement pledging U.S. assistance in Mexico’s fight against the drug cartels, most of which get their weapons from U.S. arms dealers.

The plan calls for U.S. help in training and equipping Mexican security forces and strengthening the rule of law and judicial systems in Mexico, Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

In the summer of 2009, some organizations expressed concerns over Mexico human rights abuses, which had been linked to protests against the military. Amid those reports, some members of Congress — including Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who sits on the Senate’s State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee — said they would push to reduce funds to Mexico.

Cuellar disagreed with Leahy and pushed to maintain the funding levels because Cuellar — as well as the U.S. Department of State — believed the protests may not be legitimate and were actually organized by the cartels.

“Why would someone not want to have security?” Cuellar said. “If we are able to stabilize Mexico, then I think that will be helpful to the U.S., also.”

But some in Mexico City do not believe the United States is living up to its obligation.

Mexican Sen. Felipe Gonzalez Gonzalez, chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee, said the U.S. is not sending resources as quickly as promised and is not sending as much as it promised.

“Originally, we had agreed they were going to send eight helicopters, but we only got five,” Gonzalez said in Spanish. “And about the Casa 235 (twin-engine turboprop transport) airplanes, they said they were going to send two and we will only get one (in December).”

Gonzalez said Mexico received five trucks equipped with backscatter X-ray machines last year, and the military has received 30 ion detectors; this year they will get 10 more trucks equipped with backscatter X-ray machines — trucks that were supposed to be given last year.

“Something is happening, because the cooperation expected from the U.S. is different” than promised, Gonzalez said. “Meanwhile, we are really paying a very high price in money and human lives, because the war has been terrible, and we feel that they don’t understand over there” in the U.S.

Gonzalez said many of the concerns over human rights violations would be addressed if the Mexican Congress had passed a law to change the Mexican Constitution that would permit that nation’s military to lead police investigations against drug traffickers and fight drug cartels.

In Mexico, the military can operate when the public peace has been disturbed, but Calderon ordered the armed forces to crack down on the drug cartels after the Public Safety Ministry seemed overpowered and lost the trust of other agencies.

“It’s our fault (for not changing the law),” Gonzalez said. “And that enables the attorneys and the detained (suspected) traffickers to argue an unconstitutional arrest.”

The disparity between the United States’ promised aid to Mexico and its actual level of assistance is troubling, Gonzalez said.

“This situation does not send the message (to Mexico) that the priority for the U.S. is to stop the drug consumption or to help us,” he said. “This worries us a lot.”

Neither Cuellar nor Ortiz were able to say how much equipment had been sent to Mexico — their offices have been closed for the past week because of the blizzard on the East Coast.

Martha L. Hernández covers Mission, western Hidalgo County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4846.