Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jun 2008
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: A08
Copyright: 2008 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post Foreign Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Merida+Initiative
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon

ANTI-DRUG AID FOR MEXICO APPROVED

U.S. Lawmakers Responded to Counterparts' Objections

MEXICO CITY -- A U.S. plan to provide Mexico with a major anti-drug 
aid package has received congressional approval, following months of 
negotiations in which Mexico proved itself to be a far more assertive 
neighbor than in the past, according to current and former 
high-ranking officials in both nations.

The U.S. Senate approved the aid -- known as the Merida Initiative -- 
late Thursday after stripping conditions that Mexican officials said 
would have infringed on their sovereignty, particularly on the issue 
of human rights. The measure, includes $400 million for Mexico -- the 
bulk of which would be spent on equipment and training -- and $65 
million for Central American nations.

"The approval by the U.S. Congress of funds for the Merida Initiative 
is a testament to the level of maturity that dialogue between Mexico 
and the United States has reached, and the mutual trust we have 
achieved," Mexican Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino said Friday 
at a news conference here.

Previous U.S.-Mexican aid packages are generally thought to have been 
failures. In the mid-1990s, the United States sent dozens of aging 
helicopters to Mexico. Mexico was barely consulted, according to U.S. 
and Mexican officials involved in the process. The helicopters did 
not meet Mexico's needs and were returned in the late 1990s.

"It's a different ballgame now," Jeffrey Davidow, U.S. ambassador to 
Mexico from 1998 to 2002 and now president of the nonprofit Institute 
of the Americas, said in an interview. "It is a question of Mexico 
asserting itself as a partner and not as a supplicant."

The Merida Initiative, proposed by Bush in October, had appeared to 
be on the brink of failure earlier this month after Mexican officials 
voiced opposition to the terms of the agreement.

Ruth Zavaleta, president of the lower house of the Mexican Congress, 
had suggested throwing out the proposal and coming up with a new one. 
Manlio Fabio Beltrones Rivera, president of Mexico's Senate, said, 
"We have to throw the old forms of conditioned collaboration in the 
garbage, as well as the taboos of the past that have impeded the two 
countries from having a common strategy to fight their common problems."

The Mexican legislators had myriad complaints. For instance, the U.S. 
Senate had wanted to require the Mexican military to send cases of 
soldiers accused of human rights violations, including rape and 
torture, to the civilian courts -- a move that was considered an 
affront by Mexican generals and could have required Mexico to change 
its constitution.

Responding to Mexican complaints, U.S. lawmakers changed the wording 
of the bill to say Mexico should ensure that civilian authorities 
approached such cases in accordance with Mexican law, which some 
scholars say may actually allow soldiers to be transferred from 
military to civilian courts.

U.S. lawmakers also reduced the amount of the package that would be 
withheld until a State Department review from 25 percent to 15 
percent. Under the measure, the money would be turned over only after 
U.S. officials determine that Mexico is improving the accountability 
and transparency of its police forces, establishing regular 
consultation with Mexican human rights groups and enforcing a ban on 
the use of testimony obtained through torture.

The changes quieted complaints from Mexican officials who weeks 
earlier had been vowing to reject the aid.

In an interview, Zavaleta said she and other Mexican leaders "felt 
hurt" because they thought the United States was infringing on their 
sovereignty, a particular point of sensitivity here because Mexico 
lost almost half its territory to the United States after the 1840s 
Mexican-American War.

"It's bothersome that on one side they wanted to . . . 'certify' the 
actions we are taking as if they did not trust us," she said.

In an interview, Jose Miguel Vivanco of New York-based Human Rights 
Watch, said he was "quite disappointed in the government" of 
President Felipe Calderon.

"There was a huge overreaction by the government," Vivanco said.

The ice began to thaw, it seems, on June 8 when Mexican and U.S. 
lawmakers met in Monterrey, Mexico, for a binational conference. U.S. 
Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Calif.) said in an interview that the 
lawmakers found common ground in Monterrey by "trashing their own 
executive branches" for not consulting with them when the measure was 
being drawn up.

After hearing the complaints about sovereignty firsthand, Bilbray and 
other U.S. lawmakers were more inclined to loosen conditions that had 
offended Mexicans.

"This is a national pride issue," Bilbray said.

Bilbray, whose district includes parts of the San Diego area, noted 
that the drug war in Mexico is now threatening his constituents. More 
than 1,800 people have been killed in Mexico this year in drug 
violence, and Mexican cartels are increasingly crossing the border to 
kidnap people in the United States.

"I think we're beyond conditioning," Bilbray said in the interview, 
the day before the bill passed the Senate. "There's got to be a 
degree of faith here. If a fireman is going to take your child out of 
a burning room, you don't stop him to ask for his credentials." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake