MX Fact Sheet: INICIATIVA MÉRIDA: Un Nuevo Paradigma de Cooperación en Materia de Seguridad

INICIATIVA MÉRIDA: Un Nuevo Paradigma de Cooperación en Materia de Seguridad
22 octubre 2007

Los gobiernos de México y Estados Unidos comparten una profunda preocupación por la amenaza que representa para nuestras sociedades la operación de narcotraficantes y otras organizaciones criminales que actúan en ambos lados de nuestra frontera común. La creciente capacidad operacional y financiera de los grupos criminales involucrados en el tráfico de drogas, armas y personas, así como de otras actividades criminales transnacionales, representan una contundente amenaza para las vidas y el bienestar de los ciudadanos de México y Estados Unidos. México y Estados Unidos establecerán como prioridad combatir el poder y la impunidad de las organizaciones criminales y del narcotráfico, que amenazan la salud y la seguridad pública de sus ciudadanos, así como la estabilidad y la seguridad en la región.

Ambos gobiernos están profundamente comprometidos con la cooperación bilateral estratégica, táctica, concertada y necesaria para combatir de manera efectiva esta actividad criminal, particularmente la amenaza que representa para nuestra juventud, y para lograr una cooperación regional e internacional más amplia requerida para ser exitosos en esta lucha.

El Gobierno de México ha otorgado la máxima prioridad nacional a este objetivo y está desplegando todos los recursos materiales y organizacionales disponibles para que el gobierno federal pueda contrarrestar la grave amenaza que representan las organizaciones criminales. México también ha realizado importantes esfuerzos diplomáticos para construir una colaboración internacional más sólida dirigida a desarticular las redes que utilizan estos grupos para llevar a cabo sus operaciones. El gasto erogado en seguridad para cumplir con este objetivo por siete dependencias federales mexicanas asciende a 2.5 mil millones de dólares anuales, un incremento de 24% con relación al presupuesto 2006 de la Administración anterior.

De la misma manera, el gobierno de Estados Unidos, por medio de sus agencias federales y junto con sus contrapartes mexicanas, ha incrementado sus esfuerzos para desarticular el tráfico de narcóticos, dinero, personas y armas a través de la frontera y para combatir a organizaciones criminales que operan en ambos países. La Estrategia Antinarcóticos para la Frontera Suroeste, la Estrategia Nacional para el Control de las Drogas y la Estrategia de EE.UU. para Combatir las Pandillas Criminales de Centroamérica y México reflejan los avances que hemos alcanzado.

Durante el encuentro que sostuvieron los Presidentes Felipe Calderón y George W. Bush en marzo de 2007 en Mérida, establecieron como prioridad la ampliación de la cooperación bilateral y regional para alcanzar estos objetivos compartidos cruciales. En los últimos meses, funcionarios de ambos países han sostenido intensas discusiones con el fin de desarrollar estrategias efectivas sobre este tema.

Nuestra meta común es maximizar la eficacia de nuestros esfuerzos en la lucha contra las organizaciones criminales así como para detener el narcotráfico (incluyendo el de precursores químicos); el tráfico de armas, las actividades financieras ilícitas, el tráfico de divisas y la trata de personas. La Iniciativa Mérida representa un nuevo y más intenso nivel de colaboración que marca el comienzo de una nueva etapa en nuestra cooperación bilateral que caracteriza la sólida relación que existe entre ambos países.

La Iniciativa Mérida complementará acciones específicas para: 1) Reforzar los esfuerzos internos de procuración de justicia en México; 2) Reforzar los esfuerzos internos de procuración de justicia en Estados Unidos; y 3) Ampliar la cooperación bilateral y regional dirigida a la amenaza de la delincuencia transnacional.

México fortalecerá sus capacidades operacionales para combatir más eficazmente a los narcotraficantes y al crimen organizado; Estados Unidos intensificará sus esfuerzos para enfrentar todos los aspectos del narcotráfico (entre ellos la demanda de drogas) y continuará combatiendo el tráfico de armas y de dinero en efectivo hacia México. Los dos países aumentarán la cooperación, la coordinación y el intercambio de información para combatir a las organizaciones criminales en ambos lados de la frontera.

Para incrementar las capacidades operativas de las dependencias e instituciones mexicanas, nuestras estrategias incluyen una renovada transferencia de equipo y recursos técnicos, de acuerdo con las normas correspondientes de transparencia y rendición de cuentas en ambos países. Asimismo, las estrategias incluyen programas de capacitación e intercambio de expertos, pero no contemplan el despliegue de personal militar estadounidense en México.

Nuestras estrategias para la ampliación de la cooperación están basadas en el pleno respeto de la soberanía, jurisdicción territorial y marcos legales de cada país, y están orientadas por los principios de confianza mutua, responsabilidad compartida y reciprocidad. La iniciativa se construirá sobre la base de las estrategias internas vigentes y los esfuerzos en curso desarrollados por dependencias encargadas de la aplicación de la ley en ambos países.

El fortalecimiento de la cooperación bilateral entre México y los Estados Unidos facilitará nuestra cooperación regional e internacional en contra del crimen organizado, particularmente con los países de Centroamérica. México y Estados Unidos reconocen la naturaleza global y regional de las organizaciones criminales transnacionales dedicadas a la trata de personas y al tráfico de drogas, dinero en efectivo y armas a través de las fronteras nacionales.

Para avanzar en la instrumentación de la Iniciativa Mérida, el gobierno de los Estados Unidos ha presentado una solicitud de recursos adicionales a su Congreso para el año fiscal 2008 por 500 millones de dólares para reforzar los importantes esfuerzos que México está llevando a cabo actualmente con sus propios recursos. Esta sería la primera parte de un solicitud multianual de fondos por un total por 1.4 mil millones de dólares. Además, los Estados Unidos han solicitado la asignación de 50 millones de dólares para los países centroamericanos a fin de fortalecer los esfuerzos regionales. La Iniciativa Mérida permitirá que ambos países enfrenten más eficazmente la amenaza común del narcotráfico y de la delincuencia organizada transnacional.

US Fact Sheet: The Merida Initiative: United States – Mexico – Central America Security Cooperation

Fact Sheet
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
October 22, 2007

The Merida Initiative: United States – Mexico – Central America Security Cooperation

Today President Bush announced his request to fund a new security cooperation initiative with Mexico and the countries of Central America in order to combat the threats of drug trafficking, transnational crime, and terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. President Calderón of Mexico has taken decisive action to fight drug trafficking and criminal organizations operating on both sides of the border. The Presidents of Central America have clearly expressed the political resolve to join forces to strengthen regional security and seek additional tools and capacity to execute such will.

This partnership would support coordinated strategies to:

Produce a safer and more secure hemisphere where criminal organizations no longer threaten governments and regional security; and
Prevent the entry and spread of illicit drugs and transnational threats throughout the region and to the United States.
To achieve these goals, President Bush has requested $550 million as part of a multi-year program to provide:

Non-intrusive inspection equipment, ion scanners, canine units for Mexican customs, for the new federal police and for the military to interdict trafficked drugs, arms, cash and persons.

Technologies to improve and secure communications systems to support collecting information as well as ensuring that vital information is accessible for criminal law enforcement.

Technical advice and training to strengthen the institutions of justice – vetting for the new police force, case management software to track investigations through the system to trial, new offices of citizen complaints and professional responsibility, and establishing witness protection programs.

Helicopters and surveillance aircraft to support interdiction activities and rapid operational response of law enforcement agencies in Mexico.
Initial funding for security cooperation with Central America that responds directly to Central American leaders’ concerns over gangs, drugs, and arms articulated during July SICA meetings and the SICA Security Strategy.

Includes equipment and assets to support counterpart security agencies inspecting and interdicting drugs, trafficked goods, people and other contraband as well as equipment, training and community action programs in Central American countries to implement anti-gang measures and expand the reach of these measures in the region.
The President’s Commitment to Regional Security Strategy

“The United States is committed to this joint strategy to deal with a joint problem. I would not be committed to dealing with this if I wasn’t convinced that President Calderón had the will and the desire to protect his people from narco-traffickers. He has shown great leadership and great strength of character, which gives me good confidence that the plan we’ll develop will be effective.”

President George W. Bush, August 21, 2007 Montebello

“Our countries are working together to fight transnational gangs. And the President (Berger) was right – I suggested we think about this issue regionally. You’ve got to understand that these gangs are able to move throughout Central America and up through Mexico into our own country, and therefore, we’ve got to think regionally and act regionally.”

President George W. Bush, March 12, 2007 Guatemala City

Drug Demand Reduction

The United States has done more than any other industrialized nation to reduce illegal drug use among its population. Through a broad array of efforts, it has succeeded in reducing cocaine use among 18-25 year olds by nearly 60% since its peak in 1979, and overall youth drug use has fallen by 23.2% since 2001. The President’s FY2008 budget dedicates $4.6 billion to an array of new federal prevention and treatment initiatives. Since 2001, the Administration has spent $16.7 billion on drug demand reduction.

The National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy

United States federal agencies along the Southwest border are coordinating their efforts to implement 68 objectives under this new strategy in the following areas: intelligence collection and information sharing, interdiction at and between ports of entry, aerial surveillance and interdiction of smuggling aircraft, investigations and prosecutions and countering financial crime. It is estimated that U.S. is spending $1.9 billion to implement this strategy in addition to funds being requested for the Security Cooperation Initiative. On October 2, 2007 John Walters, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy said that this balanced strategy will serve as an effective response against violent drug trafficking organizations that work to undermine democracy and rule of law.

Reduction in Trafficking in Arms

In 2005, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms launched its Southwest Border Initiative to attack the firearms-trafficking infrastructure of criminal organizations working across the border. New programs to share tracing capabilities with the Mexicans, close off trafficking corridors, expand actionable, real-time intelligence cooperation and aggressively pursue prosecution have resulted in marked increases in interdictions and arrests of individuals seeking to move firearms across the border.

2007/905

Released on October 22, 2007

US Fact Sheet: Joint Statement on the Merida Initiative: A New Paradigm for Security Cooperation

US Government Media Note
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
October 22, 2007

Joint Statement on the Merida Initiative: A New Paradigm for Security Cooperation

Following is the text of a joint statement issued on October 22, 2007.

The Governments of the United States and Mexico share a deep concern over the threat to our societies by drug trafficking and other criminal organizations operating on both sides of our commonborder. The growing operational and financial capabilities of criminal groups that traffic in drugs, arms, and persons, as well as other transnational criminal activity, pose a clear and present threat to the lives and well-being of U.S. and Mexican citizens. The United States and Mexico will make it a priority to break the power and impunity of drug and criminal organizations that threaten the health and public safety of their citizens and the stability and security of the region.

Both governments are profoundly committed to the concerted bilateral strategic and tactical cooperation necessary to combat effectively this criminal activity, particularly the threat it represents to our nations' youth, and to achieve the broader regional and international cooperation necessary to prevail in this fight.

The Government of Mexico has accorded the highest national priority to this objective and is deploying all the material and organizational resources available to its federal government to counter the grave threat represented by criminal organizations. Mexico has also deployed its diplomatic resources to build stronger international collaboration aimed at disrupting the networks on which these groups rely to carry out their operations. Their security spending targeting these organizations, across seven government agencies, has grown to $2.5 billion annually, an increase of 24% over the previous administration's 2006 budgeted levels.

The Government of the United States has likewise, through its federal agencies and jointly with their counterparts in Mexico, escalated its efforts to disrupt the trafficking of narcotics, money, people and arms across the border and to combat criminal organizations operating in both countries. Efforts outlined in the Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, the National Drug Control Strategy, and the U.S. Strategy for Combating Criminal Gangs from Central America and Mexico reflects the progress we have made.

During the Merida Summit held in March 2007, Presidents Felipe Calderon and George W. Bush agreed on the priority of expanded bilateral and regional cooperation to advance these crucial shared objectives. Officials of our two countries have held intensive discussions over the ensuing months to develop effective strategies for doing so.

Our shared goal is to maximize the effectiveness of our efforts to fight criminal organizations -- so as to disrupt drug-trafficking (including precursor chemicals); weapons trafficking, illicit financial activities and currency smuggling, and human trafficking. The Merida Initiative represents a new and intensified level of bilateral cooperation that marks a new stage in the bilateral cooperation that characterizes the strong relationship between our two countries.

The Merida Initiative will build on specific activities that aim to 1) bolster Mexican domestic enforcement efforts; 2) bolster U.S. domestic enforcement efforts; and 3) expand bilateral and regional cooperation that addresses transnational crime.

Mexico will strengthen its operational capabilities to more effectively fight drug-traffickers and organized crime; the U.S. will intensify its efforts to address all aspects of drug trafficking (including demand-related portions) and continue to combat trafficking of weapons and bulk currency to Mexico. Both nations will augment cooperation, coordination, and the exchange of information to fight criminal organizations on both sides of the border.

To increase the operational capabilities of Mexican agencies and institutions, our strategies include enhanced transfer of equipment and technical resources, consistent with all appropriate standards in both countries of transparency and accountability of use. The strategies also include training programs and two-way exchanges of experts, but do not contemplate the deployment of U.S. military personnel in Mexico.

Our strategies for expanded cooperation are based on full respect for the sovereignty, territorial jurisdiction, and legal frameworks of each country, and are guided by principles of mutual trust, shared responsibility and reciprocity. The initiative will build upon existing domestic strategies and ongoing efforts between law enforcement agencies of both countries.

The strengthening of the bilateral cooperation between Mexico and the U.S. will facilitate our regional and international cooperation against organized crime, particularly with the countries of Central America. Both Mexico and the United States recognize the global and regional nature of transnational criminal organizations trafficking in drugs, people, bulk cash and arms across national borders.

In order to move forward on The Merida Initiative, the U.S. Government has requested its Congress approve $500 million for fiscal year 2008 to provide the additional funding necessary to reinforce the significant efforts that Mexico is currently undertaking with its own resources. This would be the first part of a multi-year funding request of $1.4 billion. In addition, the U.S. has requested an initial $50 million in fiscal year 2008 for Central American countries to bolster the efforts regionally. The Merida Initiative will allow our countries to better confront the common threat of drug trafficking and other transnational organized crime.

2007/909

Released on October 22, 2007

US Fact Sheet: Testimony Before the Senate Committee On Foreign Relations

Merida Initiative
Thomas A. Shannon, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Testimony Before the Senate Committee On Foreign Relations
Washington, DC
November 15, 2007

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lugar, and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Merida Initiative and the new paradigm that it represents for regional security cooperation among the United States, Mexico, and the countries of Central America.

The President has asked for $550 million for the Merida Initiative in the supplemental budget request; $500 million of that funding would go to Mexico as the first tranche of what we hope will be a $1.4 billion multi-year security cooperation package, and $50 million would target Central America.

This is an important moment in the fight against transnational drug-trafficking and organized crime; and one that requires urgent action on the part of all nations involved. President Bush recognized that the United States has an unprecedented opportunity to reduce the economic and human toll in our cities and towns emanating from cross-border organized crime. The governments and citizens of Mexico and Central America have recognized the threat to their own stability and prosperity. They are taking courageous steps to confront these criminal elements, and are now seeking U.S. support to ensure a comprehensive and integrated regional effort.

Over the past decade, drug trafficking and other criminal organizations have grown in size and strength, aggressively seeking to undermine and intimidate government institutions in Mexico and Central America, compromising municipal and state law enforcement entities, and substantially weakening these governments’ ability to maintain public security and expand the rule of law. This proliferation has generated a surge in crime and violence throughout the region, including in the United States.

We have seen the emergence of gangs as major social actors, the corruption of the police, judiciary, and prison systems, and a growing popular demand for governments to respond to the threat posed by these criminal organizations. The effects of this growing problem are also readily apparent in the United States in the form of gang violence, crime, and higher rates of trafficking in persons and illegal drugs – all of which threaten our own national security and impose mounting economic costs.

None of what I have described above will come as a surprise to our partners in the region – these leaders have used some of the same language to describe and acknowledge the challenges they are facing. And they are acting on it: the leaders of these nations are already working to beat back violence and crime for their citizens and they have turned to us to join them – as partners.

In Mexico, President Calderon has acted decisively, using the most effective tools at his disposal. He is reorganizing the federal police, putting new and additional resources in the hands of his security services, deploying military units to support police operations, rooting out corrupt officials, attacking impunity, arresting major crime figures, and extraditing a record number of drug kingpins and other criminals to the United States. The determination and commitment shown by the Calderon Administration is historic; and the early results impressive. In the course of one month, two seizures alone have netted over 30 tons of cocaine destined for Mexico and/or the United States, shattering all previous records for drug seizures in Mexico. In fact, our understanding is that Mexico has confiscated more cocaine in the first year of the Calderon Administration than any other since they began keeping records.

However, President Calderon has recognized that leadership and political will are not enough; he needs greater institutional and material resources to ensure both near-term success and long-term institutional change. In an unprecedented step, he has asked the United States to launch a new partnership with Mexico and to help him strengthen Mexican law enforcement, public safety, and border security to defeat the drug and criminal organizations. This is not a “traditional” foreign assistance request. It is, as our joint declaration called it, “a new paradigm for security cooperation.”

At the same time, the nations of Central America have committed to collective action to address these common security concerns. Through the Central American Integration System (SICA), the governments have expressed the political resolve to join forces to strengthen regional security; however they lack sufficient tools and capacity to execute such will. Despite these challenges, national authorities remain committed to the fight; using their own limited resources and equipment to interdict narcotics, arrest drug cartel members, and extradite high-profile drug traffickers to the United States for prosecution. The countries of Central America are also committed to working among themselves as well as with the United States. In March, the Government of Panama, working with DEA and Coast Guard, seized a record 17 metric tons of cocaine. And just last week, in a combined operation involving U.S. law enforcement and the National Police of both Nicaragua and Costa Rica, 250 kilograms of cocaine were confiscated in Nicaragua. These examples demonstrate that in Central America, as in Mexico, there are courageous partners with whom we can work cooperatively.

The impetus for the Merida Initiative came out of the President’s March trip to the region; particularly his visits to Guatemala and Mexico, where security concerns dominated the conversations with President Berger and President Calderon. In the course of these discussions and the follow-on consultations with both Mexico and Central America, we have been able to develop the framework of a new regional security partnership.

Throughout this process, we have tried to shape the Merida Initiative to be comprehensive, balanced, and timely. The initiative is comprehensive in that it deals with security in all its components and builds on of a variety of initiatives that are taking place now in the United States, Mexico, and Central America. Combined with the push we have made against drug trafficking and the flow of other illicit goods elsewhere in the region, the Merida Initiative represents an effort to integrate security programs from the Andes, through the isthmus of Central America and into Mexico, up to the Southwest border of the United States. This is a hemispheric assault to cripple drug trafficking and criminal organizations, disrupt and dismantle their networks, and help fortify state institutions to ensure these groups can no longer operate effectively.

The initiative is balanced because it involves a range of security institutions in Mexico and Central America, with a particular focus on building capacity and capability in civilian sectors. The entire Central America portion of the supplemental request and nearly 60 percent of the Mexico portion is going to civilian agencies in those countries. Our goal in balancing the package is to assist Mexico and Central America in their immediate fight against organized crime, to improve connectivity and communications among the various law enforcement agencies, and to support the institutional reform necessary to fortify the state institutions of justice and rule of law that are essential for the long-term protection of civil and human rights.

Finally, the Merida Initiative is timely because it responds to a real-time threat, as organized crime attempts to overwhelm the stability and well-being of democratic states in Mexico and in Central America. Our allies in this region have already begun to act and have called on us to assist them as quickly as possible. The urgency of their appeal is palpable, and we should not miss the opportunity to capitalize on the successes we have witnessed so far, as well as to forge a stronger alliance with willing partners.

Just as our partners in the region acknowledge the extent of the threat, President Bush has accepted that the U.S. shares responsibility and is prepared to step up to do our part. This request reflects how the United States would like to work with the Governments of Mexico and Central America through the use of foreign assistance funds. And I have already spoken to the increased efforts by which these governments have begun the fight themselves. What is not captured in this supplemental request is what the United States is doing domestically to contribute to this partnership.

While I defer to U.S. domestic law enforcement agencies to provide you details, I can tell you that the Merida Initiative was designed to complement what the United States has been doing on our side of the border to address issues such as arms and bulk cash trafficking, gangs, and demand for drugs. Through a number of domestic strategies and programs – such as the Southwest Border Counter-Narcotics Strategy, the National Drug Control Strategy, and the U.S Strategy for Combating Criminal Gangs from Central America and Mexico – we are working domestically to enhance our efforts against the trafficking of drugs, arms, money, and humans, as well as to reduce the demand for drugs within the United States.

However, each nation working on its own is not enough. As President Bush has stated, regional problems require regional solutions. The Merida Initiative is where each nation’s domestic efforts are combined with regional cooperation and collaboration to multiply the effects of our actions. It clearly shows we realize that drug trafficking and criminal organizations do not respect political boundaries and that we must synchronize our tactics and confront the problem together.

This new paradigm is not without its challenges, but we believe they are challenges that can be overcome. Oversight and accountability are essential in this process and we have structured the package in such as way as to assure this. We also plan to build on the efforts of the Governments of Mexico and Central America in protecting human rights and rooting out corruption; all participants agree that these are indispensable components of any security cooperation partnership.

Having visited Mexico with Deputy Secretary Negroponte two weeks ago, and having led the U.S. delegation to the first U.S.-SICA Dialogue on Security in Guatemala in July, I can tell you that I am struck by the immediacy of the threat. Equally, I have been impressed by the commitment of the governments involved to work together to finally put an end to the growing violence and crime.

The President’s vision for this hemisphere is rooted in partnership; the type of partnership that the Merida Initiative represents. He has stressed that all in the region, including the United States, have a shared responsibility for combating this crime and violence that so gravely affect our citizens. We have far-reaching geographic, economic, and demographic links to Mexico and Central America and a compelling national security interest in helping the governments of this region succeed in the battle against crime and insecurity. We believe the Merida Initiative represents the best hope for tackling the problem in a thorough manner with our willing partners.

Thank you for your time and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.