| | |  Editorials | Opinions | July 2008 
Merida Initiative Represents a New Era of Cooperation
 Antonio O. Garza - U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
| "The Merida Initiative represents a new era of cooperation which will amplify and strengthen existing law enforcement cooperation, intelligence sharing and training programs, and enhance coordination between the United States and Mexico."
- Antonio O. Garza | | |
On June 30, 2008, President Bush approved funding for a supplemental budget bill that will include the Merida Initiative, along with a wide range of other national priorities such as military spending and natural disaster relief.
The Merida Initiative will significantly enhance ongoing cooperation and coordination between the United States and Mexico aimed at disrupting the trafficking of narcotics, money, people and arms across the border and combating the criminal organizations operating in both countries. Our commitment to confronting these transnational criminal organizations is not new.
What is new is the level of this commitment with Mexico. The Merida Initiative represents a new era of cooperation which will amplify and strengthen existing law enforcement cooperation, intelligence sharing, and training programs. It will also provide new equipment for Mexican forces to use to better confront the common threat of drug trafficking and other transnational organized crime.
As the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, I have seen how drug trafficking and the financial power it brings to organized crime threaten the security and prosperity of Mexicans. Criminal violence and the corrupting power of the illicit international drug trade also threaten communities in the United States, especially along the border.
Drug trafficking organizations are making a bloody bid to control our border regions, intimidate our respective governmental authorities, make our streets unsafe, and keep people hooked on drugs – but we cannot let them win.
When Presidents Calderon and Bush met last year in Merida, they spoke frankly about the need to coordinate our efforts against this common threat and change the paradigm under which we work together. For the first time, Mexico and the United States sought to overcome sensitivities about security cooperation and jointly address the problem of narcotics trafficking and organized crime.
The United States recognized its responsibility in contributing to this problem and wanted to partner with Mexico in addressing the consequences of the battle against illicit drugs by bolstering its law enforcement resources.
After that conversation between presidents, the Merida Initiative was born and later developed through the collective efforts of the U.S. and Mexican executive and legislative branches, as representatives of the millions of citizens of Mexico and the United States who want to defeat organized crime and drug trafficking.
In recent weeks, I have read many articles and heard many commentators asking what the United States is doing to fight the drug trade at home. We are working hard to prevent drug use and treat addiction. We know that reducing U.S. consumption will naturally cut the flow of guns and money to the criminals who profit from this trade.
The U.S. National Drug Control Strategy focuses on three elements: (1) Stopping use before it starts; (2) Overcoming addiction and intervening in drug use; and, (3) Disrupting the market. The federal government dedicated about $13 billion USD to drug control this year, of which 36 percent is devoted to reducing demand through treatment and prevention, 25 percent for interdiction, and 28 percent for state and local law enforcement. Much more is spent by state and local governments, as well as by civil society and individuals.
And we are making strides. Here are some statistics: teen drug use is down 23 percent since 2001; workplace drug tests show a decline in use from 13.6 percent positive in 1988 to 3.8 percent in 2006.
In addition to private and state addiction recovery programs, the federal "Access to Recovery Program" has already helped over 170,000 people in the U.S. and the president increased funding in 2008 by $98 million USD to expand access to more people.
On the enforcement side, we have ramped up domestic law enforcement and we are interdicting the drugs coming into the U.S. and weapons being smuggled out. In 2007, the DEA alone arrested over 29,400 people in the United States for drug-related crimes. U.S. law enforcement officials seized 36,000 pounds (16.364 metric tons) of cocaine, 2.4 million pounds (1,091 metric tons) of marijuana, and 2,906 pounds (1,321 kilos) of methamphetamines along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Operation Gunrunner, implemented in January by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to crack down on straw purchasers of weapons and arms smugglers, already netted results in May when the ATF broke up a major weapons trafficking operation in Phoenix, seizing 1,300 weapons and arresting three men responsible for smuggling hundreds of weapons to criminal organizations in Mexico.
We have also extended access across Mexico to eTrace, a weapons tracing system, so that we can collaborate with Mexican authorities to track down other arms traffickers. And we will continue to do more.
Disrupting the market also means ramping up international cooperation. Cooperation between Mexico and the United States is excellent – really, it’s the best I’ve seen in my time as Ambassador here, and probably during my entire life spent along our shared border.
The U.S. and Mexican authorities are sharing sensitive information and conducting joint investigations in the territories under their respective jurisdiction. The success of this cooperation on both sides of the border has caused traffickers to hold or redirect their activities, allowing law enforcement to move in, intercept drugs and money, and make arrests.
This cooperation is only possible because of President Calderon’s strong leadership. From the outset, his determination to restore security to Mexico and disrupt the cartels has been formidable.
Mexico has launched aggressive operations across the country to reassert control over areas that had fallen under the dominion of the cartels, deploying over 25,000 troops to over a dozen Mexican states.
Mexico increased spending to over $2.5 billion in 2007 and to over $4 billion in 2008 to improve public security and counter the cartel-led violence. And the President has spearheaded policies that will increase the effectiveness of Mexico’s security forces and encourage its professionalization.
Here are some examples of the fruits of that labor: Last year Mexican authorities extradited a record 83 fugitives to the United States, including major traffickers like Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. They deported an additional 184 non-Mexican fugitives back to face justice in the U.S.
This year, Mexico has already extradited 35 fugitives. Mexican officials also seized 48 metric tons of cocaine and over two thousand metric tons of marijuana. Additionally, Mexico greatly reduced the amount of imports of methamphetamine precursors, and implemented new regulations to eliminate their licit imports entirely in 2008.
According to the DEA, in 2007, seizures in Mexico denied over $297 million USD in revenue to drug smuggling organizations. And the trend of increased seizures has contributed to a 44% increase in the price of cocaine in the United States and a decline in its purity. These are some of the victories that come from working together.
But these actions have also come at a cost. Of the 2,500 Mexicans killed in narco-violence last year, hundreds were police officers, soldiers, and local officials. And every day we see new reports of more deaths.
In the face of this violence, we must renew and reinforce our efforts, which is why the Merida Initiative is so important. With new equipment, shared standards and common procedures, our joint efforts will be more successful in challenging the threat from criminals operating across borders.
Mexico and the United States share many things as neighbors. We share common values as well as a border. And we share the problems associated with drug trafficking. We must also share in the solution.
In this new era of cooperation, the Merida Initiative is undeniably in our mutual benefit and is an important step in the right direction to confront narco-trafficking with all of the strength of our two countries working together.
And so, I would like to close as I always do, by asking that God bless Mexico and the United States.
Antonio O. Garza is the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
El Presidente Bush Promulga la Iniciativa Mérida
Antonio O. Garza - Embajada de los Estados Unidos
El Presidente Bush aprobó hoy la Ley Presupuestal Suplementaria para 2008 en la que se incluye el financiamiento de la Iniciativa Mérida.
Esta Iniciativa ampliará de manera significativa la cooperación y coordinación que existe entre los Estados Unidos y México, con el fin de atacar el tráfico de drogas, dinero, personas y armas a través de nuestra frontera, y de combatir a las organizaciones criminales que operan en ambos países.
Nuestro compromiso de hacer frente a estas organizaciones delictivas transnacionales no es nuevo. Lo que es nuevo es el nivel de nuestro compromiso con México.
La Iniciativa Mérida representa una nueva era de cooperación que ampliará y fortalecerá los programas vigentes de cooperación en materia de aplicación de la ley, intercambio de datos de inteligencia y capacitación a elementos de las fuerzas del orden público.
También dará equipo nuevo para que las fuerzas mexicanas hagan frente de mejor manera a la amenaza común del narcotráfico y de otros tipos de crimen organizado transnacional.
Los carteles del narcotráfico están realizando una campaña sangrienta. Sin embargo, no podemos permitir que ganen.
Cuando los presidentes Felipe Calderón y George Bush se reunieron el año pasado en Mérida, hablaron con franqueza sobre la necesidad de trabajar de manera coordinada contra esta amenaza común y cambiar el paradigma bajo el cual trabajamos conjuntamente.
Por primera vez, México y los Estados Unidos, tanto sus presidentes como sus congresos, buscaron superar sensibilidades en cuanto a la cooperación en materia de seguridad y hacer frente, juntos, al problema del tráfico de narcóticos y del crimen organizado.
En Estados Unidos, sabemos que reduciendo nuestro consumo reducirá naturalmente el flujo de armas y dinero a los criminales que se benefician de este comercio. Estamos trabajando arduamente en este sentido, y estamos logrando grandes avances.
La colaboración entre México y los Estados Unidos es excelente. El éxito de esta cooperación en ambos lados de la frontera ha causado que los traficantes detengan o reenfoquen sus actividades, lo que permite que las fuerzas del orden público actúen, intercepten drogas y dinero, y arresten a delincuentes.
Tal cooperación sólo es posible por el firme liderazgo del Presidente Calderón y el apoyo del pueblo de México.
Frente a esta violencia, debemos renovar y fortalecer nuestros esfuerzos. Por eso la Iniciativa Mérida es tan importante. Con equipo adicional, estándares compartidos y procedimientos comunes, nuestros esfuerzos conjuntos tendrán más éxito en desafiar la amenaza de criminales que operan a través de nuestras fronteras.
Es innegable que, en esta nueva era de cooperación, la Iniciativa Mérida nos beneficia a ambos y que es un paso importante en la dirección correcta para hacer frente al narcotráfico con toda la fuerza de nuestros dos países. |
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