A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) makes painfully clear that the U.S. is wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on the drug war in Mexico, with little oversight, instead of investing in proven strategies to reduce drug demand and weaken Mexico's powerful drug cartels.
The GAO report, released on Wednesday, says that, after two full years, the U.S. has no clear measures in place to determine if its $1.6 billion aid package to Mexico-known as the Merida Initiative -is having any impact whatsoever on the strength of the cartels.
The report is the latest indication of failure in the war on drugs, of which there is crystal clear evidence. Nearly 25,000 people have been killed in Mexico because of prohibition-related violence since President Felipe Calderon unleashed the Mexican army against the cartels, who appear stronger than ever, three years ago. Yet drugs remain as widely used and easily available in the U.S. as ever.
For this failure, Mexico pays a huge price. The past month has been one of the bloodiest on record: hundreds of homicides each week, 18 partygoers gunned down in the city of Torreon, a brazen car bomb attack in Ciudad Juarez-now the world's deadliest city, an attack on a drug treatment center -- which seems to be a growing trend -- in the city of Chihuahua that killed 19 people; and several high-profile political killings, including the assassination of Rodolfo Torre Cantu, a popular frontrunner in a gubernatorial campaign in the border state of Tamaulipas.
News of Torre's assassination shook the country, with experts saying it's the most notable political murder in two decades. But like other Mexican politicians and law enforcement officials who have been slain, or who have been found guilty of corruption and collusion with the cartels, the assassination is proof that the failure of this drug war is claiming more than individual lives. It is destroying Mexico's democratic institutions.
Billions Wasted in Mexico Pushing Failed U.S. Drug War Tactics
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By Daniel Robelo
Alternet, July 27, 2010
Straight to the Source
