US Claims the Merida Initiative Is Effective Despite the Ayotzinapa Tragedy Television del Su
go to original February 5, 2015

The United Nations has condemned Mexico for how it has handled the case of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students from the state of Guerrero saying that the government could have done more given the severity of the situation. (Televisión del Sur)

“The mass murder in Iguala deserves the condemnation of the whole world but, that does not mean that the bilateral cooperation has failed,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of International and Law Enforcement Affairs, William Brownfield, on Tuesday at a conference call.

His praise of the “heroic measures” Mexico adopted after the Ayotzinapa tragedy contrasted sharply with the condemnation, the day before, of the way the Mexican government had handled the case at the United Nations in Geneva.

...Brownfield will soon be sending a report to the Congress about the Merida Initiative, a plan created in 2008 to provide financial and military support to the Mexican government in its fight against criminal groups. The renewal of 15 percent of the plan's budget is conditional on the Congress' evaluation of Mexico's advances in human rights.

Despite being funded with US$2.3 million per year, critics have repeatedly noted the disastrous effects of the policy. According to a 2013 report by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, for instance, the U.S. war on drugs policy in Mexico dramatically worsens the security and human rights situation, including spreading arms around the country, while many people migrant abroad, fleeing violence.

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