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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2007 
Mexico to Spend $7 Billion on Anti-Drug Crackdown
 Reuters
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 |  | The Mexican Congress will have to approve, or not, this level of funding that the government intends to dedicate to fighting organized crime.
- Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan |  | |
Mexico City - Mexico plans to put up $7 billion, to go with $1.4 billion offered by Washington, to fund a three-year crackdown on its violent drug cartels, the Mexican ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday.
The program, called the "Merida Initiative" after the Mexican city where Mexican and U.S. leaders discussed the issue in March, will continue Mexico's 10-month army offensive against drug cartels whose clashes have killed 2,100 people this year.
"Seven billion dollars for the duration of this process, that's right," Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan told Mexican radio, confirming a figure given by U.S. officials last week.
"The Mexican Congress will have to approve, or not, this level of funding that the government intends to dedicate to fighting organized crime," he said.
The Mexican government has not said how much it has spent so far on this year's drug-trafficking crackdown, which has reaped a string of high-profile drug busts and arrests.
Alarmed by a surge in drug killings last year, Calderon's first move on becoming president last December was to deploy 25,000 soldiers and federal police to hot spots in northern and western states.
After months of talks, President George W. Bush asked the U.S. Congress on Monday for $500 million, the first chunk of $1.4 billion earmarked to fund Mexico's war on the gangs that smuggle South American drugs north to the U.S. market.
The funds will pay for aerial surveillance equipment, narcotics-scanning gear and data-processing software.
Mexico's crackdown has already squeezed U.S. supplies of drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine, causing street prices to jump. |
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