From Mexico Gulf Reporter --
The Mérida Initiative is a 2007 agreement between the United States and Mexico which provides for U.S. training and equipping of Mexican military and police forces, coupled with intelligence gathering and sharing. As of Dec. 31, 2011, U.S. funding of the program was at $900 million, or over half of the $1.6 billion budgeted by Congress in 2008. The drug war deal derives its name from several meetings held in this capital of Yucatán state between Mexican president Felipe Calderón and U.S. president George W. Bush.
Last week (May 24) the Senate approved $244 million in funds for fiscal 2013, which begins Oct. 1. For more on this story please visit Edward V Byrne's excellent blog.
As I have previously posted, US training and funding of the Mexican armed forces goes back at least to the 1990s when US, French and Israeli special forces trained a group of commandos in counter-insurgency to take on the Chiapas rebels. Within a few years members of this group had flipped into a paramilitary drug gang - becoming the ultraviolent Zeta and Gulf cartels.
The Mérida Initiative is a 2007 agreement between the United States and Mexico which provides for U.S. training and equipping of Mexican military and police forces, coupled with intelligence gathering and sharing. As of Dec. 31, 2011, U.S. funding of the program was at $900 million, or over half of the $1.6 billion budgeted by Congress in 2008. The drug war deal derives its name from several meetings held in this capital of Yucatán state between Mexican president Felipe Calderón and U.S. president George W. Bush.
Last week (May 24) the Senate approved $244 million in funds for fiscal 2013, which begins Oct. 1. For more on this story please visit Edward V Byrne's excellent blog.
As I have previously posted, US training and funding of the Mexican armed forces goes back at least to the 1990s when US, French and Israeli special forces trained a group of commandos in counter-insurgency to take on the Chiapas rebels. Within a few years members of this group had flipped into a paramilitary drug gang - becoming the ultraviolent Zeta and Gulf cartels.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete