Pubdate: Wed, 31 Mar 2010
Source: El Paso Times (TX)
Copyright: 2010 El Paso Times
Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/formnewsroom
Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829

MEXICAN POLICE: U.S. TRAINING QUESTIONABLE

So, should some of the $1.4 billion in funding from the Merida 
Initiative go toward training those being fingered as the enemy to 
the well-being of Mexico?

We teach them, and we teach them well.

But in Mexico, the feared Zetas are Mexican army deserters who are 
said to be behind many of the ongoing brutal killings. Some are 
believed to have been trained by the United States at the former 
military School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga.

There is some local opining on this situation:

"I think both the U.S. and Mexican governments are starting to see 
the limitations of military-police solutions to the problems of drug 
trafficking and related crime and violence," said University of Texas 
at El Paso Professor Howard Campbell, who specializes in Mexican 
cartel research.

"You can train someone, but that still doesn't affect their morals," 
former El Paso customs agent Richard Newton said. "I don't care how 
good the training is. The problem is that these people can be bribed 
and they may go to work for the cartels."

And recall recent testimony in an El Paso courtroom where a witness 
said police in Juarez know that if they don't take orders from the 
cartel, they will be killed.

That school in Fort Benning trained more than 61,000 Latin American 
soldiers and policemen between 1984-99, according to the U.S. 
Department of State.

Some trainees, of course, have gone on to have positive effects in 
their country. Others, such as U.S.-trained Manuel Noriega, have gone 
on to be drug lords. He became a dictator and drug kingpin in Panama.

In 1999, Congress stopped funding the School of the Americas. Now, 
however, part of the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative money approved by 
Congress in 2008 is still going to such training. It's time to step 
back and take a longer and harder look at how our money is being 
spent in Mexico's fight against drug cartels.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart