U.S. LAGGING IN SENDING ANTI-DRUG AID TO MEXICO, GAO SAYS

MEXICO CITY -- The United States has spent a fraction of the money
pledged -- just $24 million of $1.3 billion appropriated -- to help
Mexico in its bloody three-year-old battle against the drug cartels
that have turned parts of country into a war zone and left 15,000
dead, according to a U.S. government report issued Thursday.

The Merida Initiative, signed by President George W. Bush and Mexican
leader Felipe Calderon in 2007, promises Black Hawk helicopters,
night-vision goggles and drug-sniffing dogs, as well as a more robust
crime-fighting partnership between the United States and Mexico. So
far the United States has delivered 2 percent of the equipment and
support promised, according to the report by the Government
Accountability Office.

The perception of a slow flow of aid has rankled some in the Calderon
government and fueled criticism here that the United States, which
spends billions consuming illegal drugs, is fiddling while 50,000
Mexican soldiers and police officers are fighting in the streets to
confront powerful criminal organizations that threaten Mexico's
national security.

The Merida Initiative did not lay out a specific timeline for
delivering the U.S. assistance, but the report made clear that the
pace of spending was lagging.

"Few programs have been delivered and limited funding has been
expended to date," GAO investigators said. They said State Department
officials "could not tell us when they planned to deliver the
majority of Merida goods and services."

But the new U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, countered that
the GAO report creates a "misimpression." He said that the United
States has actually spent $222 million but that "due to the
idiosyncrasies of federal reporting and contracting," many
up-and-running programs have not yet shown up on the books as money "spent."

For example, Pascual said, a new federal police academy that has
graduated more than 3,000 cadets taught by U.S. instructors is not
reflected in the GAO accounting because contractors have not
submitted invoices yet.

Similarly, the ambassador said, next week the U.S. government will
deliver to Mexico five new Bell helicopters worth $66 million.

Some members of Congress, however, have been frustrated by what they
see as a sluggish pace. "As President Calderon confronts his
country's brutal drug cartels head on, we must cut through our own
government's red tape to get Merida Initiative assistance flowing to
Mexico more quickly," Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said
upon releasing the GAO report.

This week, Calderon warned that the cartels are increasingly using
drug money to buy off local politicians and attempting to manipulate elections.

Jeffrey Davidow, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico who is now
president of the Institute of the Americas in San Diego, said, "I
don't think the slowness in the outlay is any kind of indication of a
policy failure." Instead, he said, "it is better to take the time and
get it right."

The GAO report notes that the Merida Initiative also includes $175
million in appropriated funds for nations in Central America and the
Caribbean. It found that $2 million has been spent there.

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DELIVERED ASSISTANCE

The Government Accountability Office says the United States has
delivered 2 percent of the equipment and support promised to Mexico
to help fight drug-smuggling cartels under the Merida Initiative. The
aid includes:

26 armored vehicles, delivered in May

5 X-ray vans, delivered in August

30 ion scanners, delivered in September

5 Bell helicopters, to be delivered in December

SOURCE: Government Accountability Office