The Merida Initiative: An Effective Way of Reducing Violence in Mexico?

Pepperdine Policy Review Volume 4 Article 5 1-1-2011 The Merida Initiative: An Effective Way of Reducing Violence in Mexico? Sabrina Abu-Hamdeh Pepperdine University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/ppr Part of the Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons Recommended Citation Abu-Hamdeh, Sabrina (2011) "The Merida Initiative: An Effective Way of Reducing Violence in Mexico?," Pepperdine Policy Review: Vol. 4, Article 5. Available at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/ppr/vol4/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pepperdine Policy Review by an authorized administrator of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact . The Merida Initiative: An Effective Way of Reducing Violence in Mexico? Sabrina Abu-Hamdeh In recent decades, Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico have had the dubious honor of being key players in the global drug market. Today, South America is the lone producer of cocaine for the world. Mexico and Colombia provide the United States with its primary source of opiates and play central roles in the marijuana trade and the foreign production of methamphetamines.1 The main pathway for illegal drugs to enter the United States is the Central America-Mexico corridor, where it is estimated that ninety percent of all the cocaine entering the United States arrives. As a result, the Latin American drug trade is big business: Colombian and Mexican drug trafficking organizations make an estimated $18 to $39 billion annually in wholesale drug profits.2 In 2008, the National Drug Intelligence Center reported that Mexican drug trafficking organizations are the “greatest organized crime threat” to the United States today, due to the increased distribution and transportation networks Mexican cartels have put in place to meet US need.3 After the inauguration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon in 2006, and his subsequent pledge to battle corruption and drug trafficking, drug violence surged in areas dominated by the most prominent drug organizations. The death toll rose as these groups fought each other and the Mexican government for coveted control of lucrative drug routes. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime released a report stating that, though crime rates and homicides decreased worldwide, homicides increased in Latin America, Mexico and the Caribbean from 19.9 per Sabrina Abu-Hamdeh is a second year student at SPP graduating with concentrations in Economics and International Relations. She presented this paper at the Pacific Coast Conference of Latin American Studies in November 2011. 37 Pepperdine Policy Review— Spring 2011 100,000 in 2003 to 32.6 per 100,000 in 2008.4 According to recent studies, income inequality, political instability and crime have all contributed to the increases in violence, but the major factor is the drug trade. Exact numbers of drug-related deaths are disputed, but according to the TransBorder Institute at the University of California, San Diego, there were 2,120 Mexican cartel-related homicides in 2006; 2,280 in 2007; 5,153 in 2008; 6,587 in 2009; and already the highest number yet in 2010 with 5,775. Since 2007, shortly after President Calderon’s declaration of a war on drugs, an estimated 28,228 drug trade related deaths have been reported.5 Increased anxiety over the escalating violence and increased drug trafficking between US border states and northern Mexico led US lawmakers to create anti-drug assistance programs to lessen drug-related violence and drug trafficking into the United States. These programs met with little success as increased internal corruption, ever more powerful drug cartels, and increased poverty plagued Mexico. With relations continuing to cool between the United States and Mexico, President Calderon extended an olive branch in 2007 and requested the help of the United States with counterdrug efforts and assistance.6 He also pointedly remarked on the United States’ role as a major consumer of Mexican drugs when he stated at the Merida Conference, “While there is no reduction in demand in your territory, it will be very difficult to reduce the supply in ours.”7 In October 2007, the United States and Mexico announced the Merida Initiative, a $1.4 billion proposal for US assistance in Mexico and Central America’s drug war for FY 2008-FY 2010.8 For the 2008 fiscal year, Congress allocated $400 million for Mexico and $65 million for Central America. This marked a shift in US foreign drug policy, as until this time Colombia had been the main recipient of US aid, not Mexico. According to the US Department of State, Colombia received $600 million for FY 2006, while Mexico received approximately $40 million.9 As the US enters its fourth year of Merida Initiative implementation, it is important to assess whether or not it has been a successful policy. The intention of the United States and Mexico was to reduce the drug trafficking problem, cartel influence, and associated violence and corruption, while restoring order to much of Mexico through implementation of the initiative. This paper 38 Abu-Hamdeh—The Merida Initiative will address the viability of the Merida Initiative as an effective policy for reducing continued drug-related violence and homicide in Mexico. Literature Review Though extensive literature surrounds the Merida Initiative, the focus of this analysis will be three aspects of the program: the background of the proposal, the implementation and accountability of the program, and critiques of the program as a counter-drug policy. The Merida Initiative was intensely debated in Congress; lawmakers were hesitant to pass an aid proposal in light of the Mexican history of government corruption. Proponents of the initiative stressed that equipment and training, rather than direct cash transfers, would be offered to Mexico in an effort to curtail potential corruption.10 The goal of the proposal was to maximize the effectiveness of already existing programs to curb drug, human, and weapons trafficking through four different types of funding: counternarcotics/counterterrorism/border security; public security/law enforcement; institution building; and rule of law and program support. At its inception, the main objectives of the Merida Initiative were to: 1) break the power and impunity of criminal organizations; 2) strengthen border, air and maritime controls; 3) improve the capacity of justice systems in the region; and 4) curtail gang activity and diminish local drug demand.11 No additional funding for US anti-drug efforts was appropriated in the initiative, though the document cited several US counterdrug programs already in place.12 The result of both Senate and House of Representatives amendments to the proposed initiative was approval of $400 million for Mex (...truncated)