US not delivering on promise to Mexico

Washington Post:

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The Merida Initiative, signed by President George W. Bush and Mexican leader Felipe Calderón in 2007, promises Black Hawk helicopters, night-vision goggles and drug-sniffing dogs, as well as a more robust crime-fighting partnership between the United States and Mexico. So far the United States has delivered 2 percent of the equipment and support promised, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office.

The perception of a slow flow of aid has rankled some in the Calderón government and fueled criticism here that the United States, which spends billions consuming illegal drugs, is fiddling while 50,000 Mexican soldiers and police are fighting in the streets to confront powerful criminal organizations that threaten Mexico's national security.

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But the new U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, countered that the GAO report creates a "misimpression." He said that the United States has actually spent $222 million but that "due to the idiosyncrasies of federal reporting and contracting," many up-and-running programs have not yet shown up on the books as money "spent."

For example, Pascual said, a new federal police academy that has graduated more than 3,000 cadets taught by U.S. instructors is not reflected in the GAO accounting because contractors have not submitted invoices yet.

Similarly, the ambassador said, next week the U.S. government will deliver to Mexico five new Bell helicopters worth $66 million.

Some members of Congress, however, have been frustrated by what they see as a sluggish pace. "As President Calderón confronts his country's brutal drug cartels head on, we must cut through our own government's red tape to get Merida Initiative assistance flowing to Mexico more quickly," Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said upon releasing the GAO report.

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The need is urgent and there should be a sense of urgency on the part of the government in delivering the aid. Mexico is dealing with a virulent criminal insurgency and is being outspent in that war. It is in our interest to see the Mexican government wage and effective battle with them.