Fight Drug Crimes And Ensure Justice,
Accountability
Op-Ed
June 11, 2008
By Sen. Patrick
Leahy and Sen. Robert Menendez
The need for international cooperation to crack down on drug cartels
is beyond question. Just a few weeks ago, gunmen killed Mexico Chief
of Police Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez in his home. In a single week,
more than 100 people, including about 20 police officers, were
killed in drug-related violence. Some of those suspected of having a
hand in these crimes are police officers themselves, moonlighting
for the cartels.
On May 22, the U.S. Senate approved $450 million for the first
tranche of a $1.4 billion, three-year program the administration has
called the Merida Initiative, a public security partnership between
the United States and Mexico and the Central American countries to
combat drug trafficking and related violence and organized crime. In
the coming days, Congress will finalize the package as part of the
2008 supplemental appropriations bill. The program includes
intelligence sharing, dramatically higher funding for law
enforcement and some support for judicial institutions and civil
society.
Critics have chosen to interpret Congress's actions as ''sending the
wrong signal'' to our neighbors. In Mexico, some have even suggested
that any strings on U.S. taxpayer aid would be an unacceptable
''infringement of sovereignty.'' Mexican President Felipe Calderón
has made a welcome gesture in reaching out to the United States for
our help, but we reject the false choice of either ''abandoning
Mexico'' or funding the administration's plan with a blank check.
Getting the Merida Initiative right starts with recognizing where it
falls short.
• First, while President Bush would provide more than 90 percent of
the funds to Mexico -- a ten-fold increase over the current level --
the problems of transnational drug trafficking and organized crime
are regional. We have already seen the so-called ''balloon effect''
as cartels in Mexico have moved south to Guatemala.
• Second, law enforcement training and hardware, which would receive
the overwhelming bulk of U.S. funds, are incapable by themselves of
solving these problems in the long term. Any effective strategy must
also address the structural and societal causes that have allowed
drug trafficking, violent crime and corruption to flourish in Mexico
and Central America. We recognize that the region needs properly
trained and equipped police forces. But civilian justice authorities
and public institutions are the primary instruments to solve these
problems over time. For far too long, members of the security forces
of these countries have violated human rights with impunity, further
fueling a breakdown in law and order.
• Third, drug trafficking is an issue of supply and demand. We all
know that the United States is a principle market for illegal drugs
and that weapons from the United States end up in the hands of the
cartels in the region. Therefore, to make Merida work, we need to
reduce the violence and the trafficking, but we need to also focus
on our side of the border as well.
While the Senate strives to address other competing needs such as
humanitarian aid for the people of Burma, Iraq and Africa, we will
provide hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars for the Merida
Initiative. Not only is this the majority of what the president
requested, but we will also expand the initiative to include Haiti
and the Dominican Republic as well as investments for economic and
social development in Central America. [The House passed its version
of the Merida Initiative on Tuesday by a vote of 311 to 106.]
Congress is not going to ''abandon'' Mexico. Instead, we want to
help shape the Merida package to put the rule of law, human rights
and accountability at the forefront. We also need criteria for
measuring progress. As we have learned from previous failed
strategies to combat drugs, unless we address the widespread poverty
that engulfs these countries, this effort will fail.
No one supports the goals of the Merida Initiative more than we do.
Cracking down on drug trafficking and violence -- and building
closer relations with Mexico and Central America in the process --
are as important to Americans as they are to our southern neighbors.
But to succeed, we must work together to craft short- and long-term
solutions that meet our mutual security needs while building the
institutions of justice that are so crucial for long-term success.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., is chairman of the Subcommittee on
International Development and Foreign Assistance. Sen. Patrick
Leahy, D-Vt., is chairman of the State and Foreign Operations
Appropriations Subcommittee.
# # # # #