Pubdate: Wed, 21 Jul 2010
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A4
Copyright: 2010 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Marc Lacey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Merida+Initiative

REPORT SAYS U.S. FAILS TO ASSESS DRUG AID TO MEXICO

MEXICO CITY -- Despite claims by the United States and Mexico that 
drug traffickers are feeling the effects of the countries' joint 
offensive, a review by the Government Accountability Office has found 
that millions of dollars have been spent without enough regard for 
whether the money is doing any good.

The office did say in a report to be released Wednesday that the 
Obama administration had done a better job in recent months of 
spending the roughly $1.6 billion set aside to fight drug traffickers 
in Mexico and Central America. Critics in the region have said 
bureaucratic hurdles have delayed the aid, which includes training 
and helicopters.

But the report said the State Department, which is overseeing the 
so-called Merida Initiative to combat drugs in the region, had failed 
to set specific targets to determine whether the money was having the 
desired effect of disrupting organized crime groups and reforming law 
enforcement agencies.

"Without targets to strive toward, State cannot determine if it is 
meeting expectations under the Merida Initiative," the report said.

Officials in Washington and Mexico City typically point to the huge 
quantities of drugs, guns and money being seized and the number of 
arrests being made as evidence that traffickers are on their heels. 
Critics, however, point to the continued violence in Mexico as a sign 
that the traffickers remain strong.

Nearly 25,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since 
President Felipe Calderon took office at the end of 2006. Recent days 
have been particularly bloody, with an attack on a birthday party in 
Torreon that killed 17 people and a car bombing in Ciudad Juarez.

Precisely measuring the success or failure of the drug war is 
exceedingly hard, experts say. The number of arrests means little if 
many detainees are later released or replaced by new recruits. The 
seizure of huge quantities of drugs does not indicate that 
traffickers are struggling if even larger loads are getting through 
to generate big profits.

Violence could be a sign of the traffickers' strength, or it could 
indicate their weakness and desperation, as the Mexican government 
has contended.

"It's tricky," said an American official involved in the drug fight 
who was not authorized to speak on the record. He suggested that 
polling on the public perception of the police might be a way to 
gauge whether Mexican law enforcement was being properly overhauled.

Representative Eliot L. Engel, the New York Democrat who sought the 
spending review, said in a statement, "Nearly three years and $1.6 
billion later, our counternarcotics assistance to Mexico and Central 
America lacks fundamental measurements of success."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake