Mérida Initiative
The Mérida Initiative, also known as "Plan Mexico," is a collaborative agreement initiated in 2008 between the United States, Mexico, and several Central American nations, including the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Its primary goal is to combat drug trafficking and organized crime, addressing the violence and instability that these issues cause in the region. The initiative emerged from a 2007 meeting between Mexican President Felipe Calderón and U.S. President George W. Bush, where they acknowledged the urgent need for a unified approach to tackle escalating crime linked to drug cartels.
Under the initiative, the U.S. committed over $2.5 billion in funding to enhance security and law enforcement in Mexico and its Central American partners. This funding was aimed at improving police training, fostering inter-agency cooperation, and providing resources such as aircraft for surveillance and investigations. However, the Mérida Initiative has faced significant criticism, particularly regarding its effectiveness and the alleged human rights violations committed by Mexican authorities during its implementation. Reports suggest that abuses have occurred under the guise of anti-drug efforts, raising concerns about accountability and the overall impact on civil society. Over time, these criticisms led to a reduction in U.S. funding for the initiative, reflecting ongoing debates about the best strategies to address crime and violence in the region.
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Mérida Initiative
The Mérida (or Merida) Initiative, sometimes known as "Plan Mexico," was an international agreement among the United States, Mexico, the nations of Central America, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. It aimed to combat drug trafficking, organized crime, and related violence. The program began in 2008 and called for the United States to provide funding to help Mexican authorities curb illegal activities that had a detrimental effect on both countries because of their shared border. Opponents criticized the program, however, citing low success rates in curbing criminal activity and human rights violations alleged to have occurred in the name of enforcing anti-drug and anti-organized crime laws in Mexico. The program ended in 2021.
Background
For many years, the United States and Mexico shared significant problems due to drug trafficking over their shared border. By the early twenty-first century, drug cartels and organized crime in Mexico and some Central American countries became responsible for up to 90 percent of the cocaine sold in the United States, and illegal drugs became a multibillion-dollar industry for illegal operations in Mexico.
Felipe Calderón, who served as Mexico's president from 2006 to 2012, sought the United States' assistance in combating criminal activity that was problematic for both countries. In March 2007, Calderón and then President George W. Bush met in the city of Mérida on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico to develop a plan to fight drug-related criminal activity that, in their view, had reached a crisis point. Both leaders presented facts and figures supporting the need for a joint agreement to their legislators in the fall of 2007. In the United States, the agreement received congressional approval and was signed into law by Bush on June 30, 2008. The initial plan called for the US to give $400 million in aid to the Mexican government in the first year and the possibility of as much as $1.6 billion in aid to Mexico, countries in Central America, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti within three years.
Disagreement about the plan existed from the start. Members of the US Congress voiced concerns about how the money was to be spent. Initial plans called for more than half of the first year's funds—$205 million—to be spent bolstering the Mexican military. Some of these funds were to be spent on helicopters and planes to provide air surveillance of suspected areas of illegal activity and to assist with the apprehension of illegal operatives. The plan approved by Congress, however, cut these earmarks to about $116.5 million.
Overview
Between 2008 and 2021, the United States allocated more than $3.5 billion for Mérida Initiative activities in Mexico. The funds were intended to be used for improvements to Mexican security and law enforcement. Among the efforts to be funded were increased training for police investigators and intelligence operatives, including training in firearms use and forensic investigation. The initiative called for Mexican authorities to improve training in anticorruption and to develop specialized units trained to investigate and arrest those involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping, police corruption, and gang activities. Along with this came funds for increased training for lawyers, provisions for citizen observers to help crime victims, and improved resources, such as police dogs, better communications systems, and enhanced border patrols.
Other resources funded through the initiative included the provision of almost two dozen helicopters and light aircraft for patrolling and investigative operations and efforts to bolster the standards in Mexican prisons and establish drug awareness and treatment programs across the country. Improved information sharing between nearby cities on both sides of the border and interagency task forces to help various law enforcement agencies work in cooperation were also included in the plan. In many cases, the funds for these programs were spent at US suppliers for aircraft and other resources or were paid to the US government or law enforcement agencies rather than paid as direct aid to Mexico. The program was set to expire in 2010, but aspects of it were renewed on an ongoing basis until 2021.
Funding for the other involved countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, and Haiti—was also provided but in proportionately smaller amounts$248 million in Central America and $42 million in the Caribbean. These funds were intended for improving police forces and international communication between the US and these countries and for reforming criminal justice systems and targeting criminal gang activity.
Although the initial months of the program resulted in a drop in drug traffic between the United States and Central America, the drop was short-lived, and the Mérida Initiative soon faced criticism from those who alleged that it encouraged human rights violations. It was alleged that under the guise of enforcing anti-drug and anti-cartel laws, the Mexican police and military were abusing their authority. Some sources estimate that more than one hundred thousand people had been killed, disappeared, or suffered torture and other abuses at the hands of Mexican authorities under the pretense of enforcing the provisions of the Mérida Initiative.
Several high-visibility news stories, including the disappearance of forty-three college students in November 2014 and the prison escape and subsequent recapture of drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, drew negative attention to the efforts of Mexican authorities to gain control of the situation in their country. As a result, American lawmakers curtailed funding sent to Mexico for Mérida Initiative activities beginning in the mid-2010s. In 2021, the US and Mexico replaced the Mérida Initiative with the Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safe Communities. This new agreement focused on similar initiatives as the Mérida Initiative, but it incorporated some of the lessons learned from the project.
Bibliography
Ashby, Paul. "Is the Merida Initiative Working?" Americas Program, 21 July 2015, www.americas.org/is-merida-working. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
Fambrough, Leslie. Revisiting the Merida Initiative. Air War College, 2020.
Franzblau, Jesse. "Why Is the US Still Spending Billions to Fund Mexico's Corrupt Drug War?" The Nation, 27 Feb. 2015, upsidedownworld.org/news-briefs/news-briefs-news-briefs/why-is-the-us-still-spending-billions-to-fund-mexicos-corrupt-drug-war. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
"Merida Initiative." US Department of State, 2009-2017.state.gov/j/inl/merida. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
"The Merida Initiative." US Embassy & Consulates in Mexico, 7 Sept. 2021, mx.usembassy.gov/the-merida-initiative. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
Planas, Roque. "U.S. Security Aid to Mexico Dwindles amid Human Rights Abuses." Huffington Post, 29 Dec. 2015, www.huffpost.com/entry/mexico-security-human-rights‗n‗5681c198e4b0b958f65a3e4b. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
Semple, Kirk. "Missing Mexican Students Suffered a Night of 'Terror,' Investigators Say." New York Times, 24 Apr. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/04/25/world/americas/missing-mexican-students-suffered-a-night-of-terror-investigators-say.html. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
Shoichet, Catherine E. "Chasing 'El Chapo': Prison Breaks, Hideaways and Life on the Lam." CNN, 8 Nov. 2017, www.cnn.com/2016/06/26/americas/el-chapo-guzman-profile. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
"U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation: From the Mérida Initiative to the Bicentennial Framework." Congressional Research Service, Congressional Reports, 1 Oct. 2024, crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10578. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.