Gates Urges Congress To Avoid 'Slap' At Mexico

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Forum Spin Doctor
Reuters.com
April 29, 2008 By David Morgan, Reuters
MEXICO CITY -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday urged Congress to approve a $500 million anti-drug program for Mexico, saying not to do so would be "a slap" against a crucial neighbor beset by drug violence.
Gates, only the second U.S. defense chief ever to visit Mexico, told reporters that U.S. congressional inaction on the program known as the Merida initiative would undermine Washington's ability to aid Mexico's counternarcotics fight.
President George W. Bush proposed the three-year, $1.4 billion initiative last October and put an initial $500 million segment for Mexico in the administration's fiscal 2008 supplemental request for Iraq and Afghanistan war funding.
Gates said he hoped Congress would vote to approve the program by the end of May.
"Failure to do so would be a real slap at Mexico and would be very disappointing and it clearly would make it more difficult for us to help Mexican armed forces and their civilian agencies deal with this difficult problem," the defense chief told reporters.
The initial segment, which also includes $50 million for Central America, would provide the Mexican army and navy with equipment such as helicopters, surveillance planes and inspection equipment to help interdict drug shipments headed for the United States.
Later segments would provide assistance to help build up Mexican law enforcement and judiciary agencies that U.S. critics say are often overwhelmed by corruption.
The measure has come under scrutiny by Democrats in Congress, including some who would prefer to see less emphasis on aid to the Mexican military, U.S. Senate aides said.
One knowledgeable source said U.S. lawmakers have discussed the possibility of scaling back the overall program by as much as $400 million.
Bush administration officials view the program as a possible lever for deepening U.S.-Mexican military relations at a time when Washington needs Mexico's help in shoring up border security against potential threats from Islamist militants.
"There is a greater picture. It has to do with counternarcotics but it also has to do with protecting national air space and maritime boundaries," said one senior defense official.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has won praise from Washington for deploying about 25,000 troops and federal police to fight half a dozen drug-smuggling cartels since he took office in December 2006. There have been more than 900 drug killings in Mexico this year.
The U.S. State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report identified Mexico as a major source of heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana and the transit country for 90 percent of the cocaine that reaches the United States.
The Pentagon sees crime, drugs and street gangs as the top security problems facing Latin America and wants the region's soldiers, not its police, to tackle them.
But U.S. officials and analysts say the Calderon government has already spent billions of dollars on its own to combat drug traffickers and that its successes have led to a reduction in cocaine and methamphetamines in the United States.
Armand Peschard-Sverdrup of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies agreed with Gates' position that U.S. congressional failure could insult Mexico.
"You'll have the president of Mexico looking like he had to walk away empty handed, and that could conceivably be seen as yet another snub," he said.
 
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