ANTI-DRUG AID FOR MEXICO APPROVED

U.S. Lawmakers Responded to Counterparts' Objections

MEXICO CITY -- A U.S. plan to provide Mexico with a major anti-drug
aid package has received congressional approval, following months of
negotiations in which Mexico proved itself to be a far more assertive
neighbor than in the past, according to current and former
high-ranking officials in both nations.

The U.S. Senate approved the aid -- known as the Merida Initiative --
late Thursday after stripping conditions that Mexican officials said
would have infringed on their sovereignty, particularly on the issue
of human rights. The measure, includes $400 million for Mexico -- the
bulk of which would be spent on equipment and training -- and $65
million for Central American nations.

"The approval by the U.S. Congress of funds for the Merida Initiative
is a testament to the level of maturity that dialogue between Mexico
and the United States has reached, and the mutual trust we have
achieved," Mexican Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino said Friday
at a news conference here.

Previous U.S.-Mexican aid packages are generally thought to have been
failures. In the mid-1990s, the United States sent dozens of aging
helicopters to Mexico. Mexico was barely consulted, according to U.S.
and Mexican officials involved in the process. The helicopters did
not meet Mexico's needs and were returned in the late 1990s.

"It's a different ballgame now," Jeffrey Davidow, U.S. ambassador to
Mexico from 1998 to 2002 and now president of the nonprofit Institute
of the Americas, said in an interview. "It is a question of Mexico
asserting itself as a partner and not as a supplicant."

The Merida Initiative, proposed by Bush in October, had appeared to
be on the brink of failure earlier this month after Mexican officials
voiced opposition to the terms of the agreement.

Ruth Zavaleta, president of the lower house of the Mexican Congress,
had suggested throwing out the proposal and coming up with a new one.
Manlio Fabio Beltrones Rivera, president of Mexico's Senate, said,
"We have to throw the old forms of conditioned collaboration in the
garbage, as well as the taboos of the past that have impeded the two
countries from having a common strategy to fight their common problems."

The Mexican legislators had myriad complaints. For instance, the U.S.
Senate had wanted to require the Mexican military to send cases of
soldiers accused of human rights violations, including rape and
torture, to the civilian courts -- a move that was considered an
affront by Mexican generals and could have required Mexico to change
its constitution.

Responding to Mexican complaints, U.S. lawmakers changed the wording
of the bill to say Mexico should ensure that civilian authorities
approached such cases in accordance with Mexican law, which some
scholars say may actually allow soldiers to be transferred from
military to civilian courts.

U.S. lawmakers also reduced the amount of the package that would be
withheld until a State Department review from 25 percent to 15
percent. Under the measure, the money would be turned over only after
U.S. officials determine that Mexico is improving the accountability
and transparency of its police forces, establishing regular
consultation with Mexican human rights groups and enforcing a ban on
the use of testimony obtained through torture.

The changes quieted complaints from Mexican officials who weeks
earlier had been vowing to reject the aid.

In an interview, Zavaleta said she and other Mexican leaders "felt
hurt" because they thought the United States was infringing on their
sovereignty, a particular point of sensitivity here because Mexico
lost almost half its territory to the United States after the 1840s
Mexican-American War.

"It's bothersome that on one side they wanted to . . . 'certify' the
actions we are taking as if they did not trust us," she said.

In an interview, Jose Miguel Vivanco of New York-based Human Rights
Watch, said he was "quite disappointed in the government" of
President Felipe Calderon.

"There was a huge overreaction by the government," Vivanco said.

The ice began to thaw, it seems, on June 8 when Mexican and U.S.
lawmakers met in Monterrey, Mexico, for a binational conference. U.S.
Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Calif.) said in an interview that the
lawmakers found common ground in Monterrey by "trashing their own
executive branches" for not consulting with them when the measure was
being drawn up.

After hearing the complaints about sovereignty firsthand, Bilbray and
other U.S. lawmakers were more inclined to loosen conditions that had
offended Mexicans.

"This is a national pride issue," Bilbray said.

Bilbray, whose district includes parts of the San Diego area, noted
that the drug war in Mexico is now threatening his constituents. More
than 1,800 people have been killed in Mexico this year in drug
violence, and Mexican cartels are increasingly crossing the border to
kidnap people in the United States.

"I think we're beyond conditioning," Bilbray said in the interview,
the day before the bill passed the Senate. "There's got to be a
degree of faith here. If a fireman is going to take your child out of
a burning room, you don't stop him to ask for his credentials."