Drug war aid to Mexico lacks oversight

Rep. Eliot L. Engel, New York Democrat

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MEXICO CITY | The U.S. State Department has no effective way to measure the success of its billion-dollar program to help Mexico and Central America fight drug traffickers, a congressional report concludes.

Slow implementation of the program forced Mexico at least once to buy some equipment on its own while waiting for promised funds, according to the report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress.

Nine percent of the $1.6 billion promised under the Merida Initiative from 2008 to 2010 has been spent, according to the report, which was scheduled to be discussed Wednesday in Washington at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

The report said the State Department lacks adequate methods to determine whether the initiative is making a difference in the drug war three years after then-President George W. Bush first launched it during a summit with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in the Yucatan Peninsula city of Merida.

“That’s silly,” said Rep. Eliot L. Engel, a New York Democrat who commissioned the report along with Rep. Connie Mack, Florida Republican. “We need to find a way of measuring success.”

Mr. Engel chairs the House subcommittee that will review the document.

State Department officials say they are working together with Mexico to measure the program’s success.

The Merida Initiative provides equipment, such as armored cars and helicopters, and helps fund training for law-enforcement officials in Mexico and Central America.

It is one of the latest efforts to turn around what has for decades mostly been a losing battle: In May, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. has spent $1 trillion on the war on drugs over 40 years without meeting its goals of reducing drug trafficking, consumption and the violence that comes with it.

Despite intensifying U.S.-Mexico cooperation, the war south of the border has only gotten bloodier: Nearly 25,000 people have been killed in Mexico’s drug violence since Mr. Calderon deployed troops and federal police at the end of 2006 to fight the cartels in their strongholds.

President Obama’s administration has promised a new strategy that focuses on drug-use prevention and treatment.

The focus of the Merida Initiative also is shifting away from high-priced helicopters and airplanes and toward reforming Mexico’s corrupt law enforcement, courts and other government institutions.

The AP reported in May on the Merida Initiative delays and the bureaucratic reasons for them: The funds sit in three accounts, managed by more than a dozen federal agencies, each with unique budget rules. Sometimes letters of offer and letters of acceptance must be signed before checks are written. Other times, those making requests must submit spending plans spelling out strategy, goals, actions to be taken and anticipated results.

The GAO report detailed those problems and noted that the State Department is just now developing a single tracking system for Merida funds.

Susan Pittman, a spokeswoman for the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said the U.S. and Mexican governments are working together on better ways to measure the initiative’s success. She said the State Department will also follow the report’s recommendations to develop timelines for delivery of equipment and funding.

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