"Health & Medical News"

Congress is being asked to fund a $1.4-billion aid package to Mexico aimed at fighting international drug trafficking, the Dallas Morning News reported Feb. 8.

Officials from the Bush administration appeared before that House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Western Hemisphere subcommittee to call for funding the so-called Merida Initiative, which includes more direct aid to Mexico and Central America, some of it in the form of military equipment and training. “This is money well spent,” said Thomas Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

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Mexico’s attorney general says that the nation’s powerful drug cartels are working to influence and disrupt upcoming national elections through a variety of tactics, up to and including kidnapping candidates, the Washington Post reported Jan. 5.

“We have evidence, complaints from candidates who were kidnapped or intimidated, or who received threats intended to influence the results of an election and the behavior of candidates,” said Mexican AG Eduardo Medina Mora in a rare acknowledgment of the problems facing Mexican democracy.

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A proposed U.S.-funded antidrug plan for Mexico could exacerbate an already dire prison overcrowding problem south of the border, USA Today reported Dec. 6.

Currently, Mexico’s prisons hold about 217,000 inmates in facilities designed for no more than 164,000. But beefing up Mexico’s justice system and sending more drug offenders to prison is a big part of the $1.4-billion Merida Initiative, a pending proposal for greater U.S.-Mexico cooperation in fighting drug trafficking.

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The proposed anti-drug alliance between the U.S. and Mexico involves far more than funding and helicopters, but rather envisions an overhaul of the Mexican justice system, the Washington Post reported Nov. 18.

U.S. taxpayer dollars would be used to fund reforms of the Mexican courts, such as hiring new clerks and educating prosecutors, as well as training drug-sniffing dogs and other law-enforcement functions. The proposal calls for developing “centers of moral authority” and “a culture of lawfulness” in Mexico.

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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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A new report from the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) says that Mexican drug cartels now operate in communities across the U.S. and generate up to $23 billion in illicit revenues annually, the Washington Post reported Sept. 20.

GAO researchers said that 90 percent of all illicit drugs entering the U.S. in 2005 came via Mexico, up from 66 percent in 2000. The report estimated that the Mexican drug cartels generated more revenue than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies.

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