Mérida Initiative

The Mérida Initiative (named after Mérida, the city where it was agreed upon), also called Plan Mexico (in reference to Plan Colombia), was a security cooperation agreement among the United States, the government of Mexico, and the countries of Central America, that ran from 2007 to 2021. With the declared aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational organized crime and money laundering, assistance between the countries included training, equipment and intelligence.

In seeking partnership with the US, Mexican officials point out that the illicit drug trade is a shared problem in need of a shared solution and remark that most of the financing for the Mexican traffickers comes from American drug consumers. U.S. law enforcement officials estimate that US$12 to 15 billion per year flows from the United States to the Mexican traffickers and that is just in cash and excludes the money sent by wire transfers. Other government agencies, including the Government Accountability Office and the National Drug Intelligence Center, have estimated that Mexico's cartels earn upwards of $23 billion per year in illicit drug revenue from the United States.GAO Report on Drug Control, October 25, 2007

U.S. State Department officials were aware that former Mexican President Felipe Calderón's willingness to work with the United States was unprecedented on issues of security, crime and drugs.Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State 2009. (pdf) The initiative was announced on 22 October 2007 and signed into law on June 30, 2008. As of March 2017, $1.6 billion of Mérida assistance had been delivered to Mexico, including 22 aircraft.U.S.-Mexican Security Cooperation: The Mérida Initiative and Beyond . (PDF) Clare Ribando Seelke, Kristin Finklea. Congresinal Research Service. June 29, 2017.

Background

In 2008, Mexico remained a transit and not a cocaine production country. Marijuana and methamphetamine production did take place in Mexico and were responsible for an estimated 80% of the methamphetamine on the streets in the United States, while 1100 metric tons of marijuana were smuggled each year from Mexico.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Mexico was persuaded to be part of both Operation Intercept and Operation Condor, developed between 1975 and 1978, with the pretext to fight against the cultivation of opium and marijuana in the "Golden Triangle", particularly in Sinaloa. The operation, commanded by General José Hernández Toledo, was a flop with no major drug lord captures and many reports of abuse and repression in rural zones.

In 1990, just over half the cocaine imported into the U.S. came through Mexico. By 2007, that had risen to more than 90 percent, according to U.S. State Department estimates. Although violence between drug cartels has been occurring long before the war began, the government used its police forces in the 1990s and early 2000s with little effect. That changed on December 11, 2006, when newly elected President Felipe Calderón sent 6,500 federal troops to the state of Michoacán to put an end to drug violence there. This action is regarded as the first major retaliation made against cartel operations, and is generally viewed as the starting point of the war between the government and the drug cartels. As time progressed, Calderón continued to escalate his anti-drug campaign, in which there are now well over 25,000 troops involved.

It is estimated that during 2006, there were about 2,000 drug-related violent deaths, approximately 2,300 deaths during 2007 and more than 3,725 deaths during 2008. Many of the dead were gang members killed by rivals or by the government, however, some have been innocent bystanders.Reuters - US, Mexico to meet on drugs in Washington next month (October 23, 2008) At least 450 police officers and soldiers have been killed since January 2007.

However, reporting of crimes in Mexico has historically been very low and inconsistent. In January 2012 the Mexican government updated its official count to 47,515 deaths since President Calderón began his military campaign against drug trafficking in 2006. Because crimes are seldom investigated there is no way of knowing if these deaths are attributed to organized crime, the police, or the cartels. Another report based on the Mexican census noted that 67,050 homicides had taken place in Mexico from 2007 to 2010 alone. Also, there was consistent resistance from the Mexican government to release new and accurate public records regarding the issue of homicides.

The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) noted that cocaine availability decreased in several U.S. drug markets during the first half of 2007, mostly because of record 33.5 ton cocaine seizures by the Mexican Navy. However, it is estimated that the major drug trafficking organizations were reorganizing and readjusting to the new challenges facing their trade; as a result, drug availability in 2008 was once again on the rise.

One of the new adaptations was the use of home-made narco submarines; in 2006, American officials say they detected only three; in 2008 they were spotting an average of ten per month, but only one in ten was intercepted. Another development during that period was the consolidation of the smaller drug trafficking organizations into powerful alliances, escalating the violence between the groups vying for control of the narcotics trade to the U.S. Some 300 tons of cocaine were estimated to pass through Mexico to the U.S. yearly at that time.

Funding The U.S. Congress authorized US$1.6 billion for the three-year initiative (2007–2010). The U.S. Congress approved $465 million in the first year, which included $400 million for Mexico and $65 million for Central America, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. For the second year, Congress approved $300 million for Mexico and $110 million for Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A FY09 supplemental appropriation provided an additional $420 million for Mexico; and, $450 million for Mexico and $100 million for Central America was requested for FY10.

$204 million of that was earmarked for the Mexican military for the purchase of eight used transport helicopters and two small surveillance aircraft. No weapons were included in the plan. The bill required that $73.5 million of the $400 million for Mexico must be used for judicial reform, institution-building, human rights and rule-of-law issues. The bill specified that 15% of the funds be dependent on Mexico making headway in four areas relating to human-rights issues, and on which the U.S. Secretary of State would have to report periodically to Congress.

An additional $65 million was granted for the Central American countries (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama); the House also included Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The bill was an attempt at a comprehensive public security package that sought to tackle citizen insecurity in Central America by more effectively addressing criminal gangs, improving information sharing between countries, modernizing and professionalizing the police forces, expanding maritime interdiction capabilities, and reforming the judicial sector in order to restore and strengthen citizens' confidence in those institutions.

Much of the funding never left the United States. It went toward the purchase of aircraft, surveillance software, and other goods and services produced by the U.S. private defense contractors. While this included equipment and training, it did not involve any cash transfers or money to be provided directly to the Government of Mexico or its private contractors. According to U.S. State Department officials, 59% of the proposed assistance went to civil agencies responsible for law enforcement, and 41% to operational costs for the Mexican Army and Mexican Navy. While the initial cost for equipment and hardware that the military required is high, it is expected that future budget requests will focus increasingly on training and assistance to civil agencies.

As of March 2017, $1.6 billion of Mérida assistance had been delivered to Mexico, including 22 aircraft. Congress provided $139 million in FY2017, and President Trump's FY2018 budget request included $85 million for the Mérida Initiative.

Equipment

The Mérida Initiative has provided funding for:

Non-intrusive inspection equipment such as ion scanners, gamma ray scanners, X-ray vans and canine units for Mexico and Central America. Technologies to improve and secure telecommunications systems that collect criminal information in Mexico. Technical advice and training to strengthen the institutions of justice, case management software to track investigations through the system, new offices of citizen complaints and professional responsibility, and witness protection programs to Mexico. Thirteen Bell 412 EP helicopters (5 with INCLE funds for the Federal Police and 8 with FMF funds for the military). Eleven UH-60 Black Hawk transport helicopters (three with INCLE funds for the Federal Police and 5 with FMF funds for the Mexican Air Force, and three for the Mexican Navy.EE.UU. entrega 3 "Black Hawk" a la Marina (September 15, 2011)) Four CASA CN-235 transport aircraft. One Reconnaissance Dornier 328JET Equipment, training and community action programs in Central American countries to implement anti-gang measures and expand the reach of these measures.

As of March 2016, the initiative transferred 22 aircraft to Mexican security forces.

Smuggling of firearms

The Mérida Initiative included $74 million to be assigned for efforts by the U.S. government to stop the flow of illegal weapons from the U.S. to Mexico, but there were concerns regarding how that would be achieved. According to a Mexican government official, as many as 2,000 weapons enter Mexico each year and fuel an arms race between competing drug cartels. Since 1996, the ATF has traced more than 62,000 firearms smuggled into Mexico from the United States.

Mexican government officials suspected that corrupt customs officials, on both sides of the border, helped smuggle weapons into Mexico. As reported by ATF, the most common "traced" firearms now included AR type rifles, Kalashnikov derivatives, semiautomatic pistols, and a variety of assorted handguns and shotguns. Also, there were occasions where grenade launchers were used against security forces and twelve M4 Carbines with M203 grenade launchers have been confiscated. It was believed that some of these high power weapons were stolen from U.S. military bases.

An analysis of firearms trace data by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over 2005-2007 showed that weapons were being traced to dealers in virtually every state, as far north as Washington state, and that Texas, Arizona and California were the three most prolific source states, respectively, for firearms subsequently illegally trafficked to Mexico.

Since 1996, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had traced more than 62,000 firearms smuggled into Mexico from the United States. ATF officials reported that many firearms recovered and traced in Mexico came from U.S. gun dealers, and about 55% of these guns were identified as assault rifles. The Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, reported that only 18,585 out of the 66,028 firearms seized by Mexican authorities and sent for tracing were successfully traced to the United States in the years 2005–2009. Mexico only submitted firearms for tracing if it believed that there was a reasonable chance of them being from the United States.