"Health & Medical News"

A multibillion-dollar anti-drug pact between the U.S. and Mexico could fail unless it includes action against the cartel’s money supplies and improvements in police intelligence, Reuters reported Oct. 23.

Much of the $1.4 billion that the Bush administration wants to send to Mexico would be spent on helicopters and other equipment. But Ernesto Mendieta, a former Mexican prosecutor and security advisor, said, “More helicopters won’t make a difference because you are only dealing with the armed side of the cartels. You’ve got to go after their finances and find out where their banks accounts are. That is the way to weaken them.”

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Issues of sovereignty and control have some Mexicans worried about a proposed billion-dollar alliance with the U.S. to fight drug trafficking, the Austin American-Statesman reported Oct. 15.

The Bush administration has proposed spending $1.4 billion over two years to stem the tide of drugs flowing through Mexico into the U.S. But a long history of mistrust between the two nations makes cooperation tricky, and some Mexican politicians argue that the plan violates their country’s sovereignty.

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