US State Department's Merida Initiative Human Rights Report: Unconvincing Whitewash

This past August, the US State Department issued a report entitled "Mexico--Merida Initiative Report." The report is in response to two Congressional Appropriations bills, one signed into law in 2008 and the other in 2009, which form part of the funding of the Merida Initiative. The Merida Initiative provides training, equipment, and armament to Mexico's military and federal police for that country's increasingly violent but consistently ineffective war on drugs. With the report, the State Department hopes to release tens of millions of dollars in Merida Initiative funding that, up until now, has been held up due to Mexico's non-compliance with certain conditions attached to the bill.

The US Congress included so-called human rights conditions in two tranches of Merida Initiative (alternatively known as Plan Merida or Plan Mexico) funding. The conditions apply to between $85 million and $100 million—less than 15%—of Merida Initiative funding, which has thus far cost US taxpayers over one billion dollars.

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