RED TAPE MAY DELAY $400 MILLION FOR MEXICO DRUG WAR

White House Says Money Probably Won't Reach The Nation for
Months

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Tuesday it would take
months, and possibly longer, to deliver $400 million in emergency
assistance to help Mexico combat murderous drug cartels, days after
pressing Congress to urgently approve the money.

Three senior Bush administration officials outlined various
bureaucratic impediments to speedy delivery of assistance to bolster
Mexican President Felipe Calderon's $4 billion, military-style
campaign against drug traffickers.

The cartels have killed more than 4,000 people over the past 21
months, including some 450 police officers, soldiers or government
officials.

Challenges to implementing the first phase of the Merida Initiative
include developing coordination between the Defense Department, the
State Department and the Treasury; setting benchmarks for success; and
prolonged procurements of military equipment such as helicopters and
surveillance aircraft.

"Both governments have seized a political moment to show solidarity,
but the real planning for implementation has yet to take place," said
Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson
Center in Washington, D.C. "There was a real sense of urgency to show
cooperation, without coordination on a long-term plan."

Staffers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., did not immediately return telephone calls
seeking comment about the potential delay in delivering U.S. assistance.

But Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, said he was "personally outraged
and deeply disappointed that the Bush administration was so obsessed
with pandering to Mexico."

"How soon can we repeal the spending?" he added.

A Calderon spokesman had no comment.

No surprise Roderic Ai Camp, an expert on Mexico's security issues at
Claremont McKenna College in California, said Mexican government
officials would not be surprised by the timetable.

"They're pretty sophisticated about how things work in Washington," he
said.

President Bush signed the emergency assistance package into law on
Monday, providing $400 million to Mexico and $65 million to Central
American and Caribbean nations.

The Merida Initiative calling for a total of $1.6 billion for Mexico
and nearby nations over three years emerged from a Bush-Calderon
summit 14 months ago in Merida, Mexico.

The three senior administration officials described implementation
during a news conference linked by videoconference with journalists at
U.S. embassies in Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama.

U.S. drug policy director John P. Walters said "the combination of
components" approved by Congress and signed by Bush would "allow us to
strengthen the ability to combat the threats as they have evolved.

"But we need to go back now, since it has been some time since we
submitted (the plans) and forge them into the actual program parts of
the initiative."

Bulletproof vests, secure communications gear and U.S. training would
be the first U.S. assistance to reach the estimated 30,000 Mexican
security forces battling the cartels, Walters said.

Procurement of equipment such as aircraft "obviously will take
longer," he said.

Turning 'wolves' into 'cockroaches' He said the emergency assistance
would help the United States and Mexico destroy drug cartels, enabling
authorities to "take those who are now day wolves and break them down
into cockroaches."

Asked how the Bush administration would measure success, David T.
Johnson, an assistant secretary of state, said the administration
would weigh "a wide range of issues, as we see how we measure our own
success."

"First and foremost is how rapidly we can bring these programs online
and make them effective, in Mexico and in Central America."

Johnson, who oversees the State Department's anti-drug efforts, said
eventual reduction of drug use in the United States may become the
yardstick, but added, "I wouldn't want to, you know, put an X on a
calendar as to when that might take place."

Thomas Shannon Jr., the State Department's top diplomat for Latin
America, said the administration had not yet apportioned to individual
Central American countries the $65 million set aside for the region.

"I think at the end of the day, it will become evident that within
Merida, Central America will play an important role, and (they'll)
receive an amount of money in cash that will be significant in terms
of the threat that it faces," Shannon said.

Camp, the California academic expert, said the promise of U.S.
military equipment to Mexico could have a large impact on the nation's
armed forces.

The gear includes upgrading two Citation surveillance aircraft for
Mexico's attorney general; the purchase of eight medium lift
13-passenger utility helicopters for Mexico's air force; and the
purchase of four maritime patrol aircraft to supplement seven
surveillance aircraft already operated by the Mexican navy.

Mexico's armed forces receive a small share of the national budget
compared with most other countries, Camp said, "so any assistance we
would give to them is money they normally wouldn't be spending on that
activity."

The promised aid "would be a sizable boost in support of the drug
mission role," Camp said.

Plan boosting border funds fails The Bush administration officials
spoke as Texans in Congress vowed to re-double efforts to boost
federal spending on U.S. law enforcement along the border to balance
the aid flowing to Mexico.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, a member of the powerful Senate
Appropriations Committee, had added $100 million to the emergency
supplemental spending bill to bolster U.S. law enforcement agencies
operating along the U.S. side of the 1,947-mile border with Mexico.
But the House knocked the added spending out of the final compromise
version of the legislation.

"This legislation was imperfect," Hutchison said, adding that she will
try again to increase spending on border law enforcement when Congress
returns from the Fourth of July recess next week.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, said he remained "disappointed and
frustrated that we can't get funding on this side that our Border
Patrol and sheriffs desperately need."

"Apparently," he said, "there are members of Congress who just don't
get it when it comes to prioritizing federal dollars to secure the
border."