Merida Initiative U.S. lawmakers try to save Mexican drug fight plan

U.S. lawmakers try to save Mexican drug fight plan
Sun Jun 8, 2008 5:55pm EDT

By Gabriela Lopez

MONTERREY, Mexico, June 8 (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers offered on Sunday to ease conditions tied to a $1.4 billion drug-fighting plan for Mexico and Central America after the Mexican government called it a threat to sovereignty.

Mexico has rejected the so-called Merida Initiative proposed by President George W. Bush because of demands by the U.S. Congress that the aid -- which includes helicopters and encrypted communication devices -- be subject to monitoring.

U.S. lawmakers also want to include human rights oversight in the three-year package, which Mexico says is unacceptable. Mexico is also upset by plans to reduce the dollar amount of aid from the original proposal.

But at a meeting of U.S. and Mexican lawmakers in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey on Sunday, both sides agreed to try to save the drug plan and soften the conditions. One way to do this could be to turn them into recommendations.

"We are going to fix the current wording in the proposal," U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters in Spanish. "Yes, we're going to change it," he replied when asked if U.S. lawmakers would drop the conditions.

The U.S. Senate wants the plan, which does not involve cash, to ensure Mexican soldiers accused of crimes be tried in civilian courts. It also wants Mexican federal officials to take on state and local anti-drug roles, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says.

The government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon says it rejects any conditions because Mexico is undergoing its own police and judicial reform and its army is waging a deadly war with heavily armed drug gangs.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in drug violence so far this year across Mexico in cartel turf wars, a faster pace than in 2007, when around 2,500 people died over the year.

"There is a good disposition (on the part of U.S. lawmakers) to modify the language in such a way that it is accepted on this side," said Sen. Rosario Green, a former Mexican foreign minister.

The Merida Initiative would originally have offered Mexico $500 million during the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, and $50 million to Central America. But now U.S. lawmakers want to cut Mexico's share to as low as $350 million and offer up to $100 million to Central America, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

INITIATIVE 'VITAL'

A senior U.S. anti-drug official urged the U.S. Congress to pass the Merida Initiative because of the scale of the narcotics war. "The Merida Initiative is vital," the official told Reuters in an interview. "The hold-ups in Congress are not good. It could be seen we're letting Mexico down."

The official, who declined to be named, predicts drug violence in Mexico will continue its surge because a powerful coalition of drug gangs led by Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, is collapsing.

Internal conflicts, greed and pressure by Mexico's military are causing a split among gangs from the Pacific state of Sinaloa, with each group seeking new alliances to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States.

"The Sinaloa cartel is weakened, divided ... . There are internal disputes, rivalries, betrayals," the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters in an interview. "You're going to see more violence."

"It is getting worse because police are engaging, because cartels want to create fear and because of attacks between rivals. It's going to get worse before it gets better." (Additional reporting by Robin Emmott in Mexico City; Editing by Eric Walsh)

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN08472126