BUSH SEEKING AID FOR MEXICO IN DRUG FIGHT

MEXICO CITY -- President Bush announced Monday in Washington that he
will ask Congress to approve a $500 million package to help Mexico
fight drug cartels, the largest international anti-drug effort by the
United States in nearly a decade.

The proposal could represent a seismic shift in relations between the
two countries, whose law enforcement agencies and policymakers have
often bickered over the drug war, as well as other hugely contentious
issues such as immigration reform and trade.

U.S. and Mexican negotiators reached the agreement in secrecy. Some in
Mexico worried that an aid package would infringe upon its
sovereignty, and concerns surfaced in the United States about costs
and strategy in light of the oft-criticized effort to combat drugs in
Colombia.

The much-anticipated Mexico aid plan, which is included in the
president's $46 billion supplemental budget request for war funding,
would pay for helicopters, canine units, communications gear and
inspection equipment, the State Department said.

The program also would include training and technical advice on
vetting new police officers, and case-management software to track
investigations in a nation where drug kingpins have infiltrated many
state and local governments and infighting among drug traffickers has
cost more than 4,000 lives in the past 22 months.

The violence is particularly acute in northern Mexico, where gunfights
frequently spill across the U.S. border, a major reason congressional
delegations in Texas and other border states have pushed for the aid
deal.

Mexico's drug cartels have been engaged in a fierce war for at least
two years as they compete for lucrative trade routes and to try to
fill power vacuums left after the extradition of several major cartel
leaders to face trial in the United States.

Although the bulk of U.S. attention is focused on Mexico, Bush also
announced an additional $50 million in proposed aid for Central
American nations that have been beset by rampant violence and drug
cartel corruption as traffickers seek new routes for the tons of
cocaine and other drugs that flow into the United States every day.

The aid packages are part of what the Bush administration hopes will
be a multiyear, $1.4 billion initiative.

Bush barely mentioned the package in his budget remarks. But within
minutes of his announcement, the White House -- cognizant of possible
opposition in Congress -- launched a public relations offensive,
distributing a statement about the aid plan that was followed by
enthusiastic news releases from the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Antonio
O. Garza Jr., and the State Department.

"This initiative . . . represents a fundamental shift in strengthening
our strategic partnership and is the single most aggressive
undertaking ever to combat Mexican drug cartels," Garza said.

In a conference call with reporters, Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the State
Department's top diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, hailed the
president's request as "historic" and predicted it could create "a new
paradigm" in U.S.-Mexico relations.

Mexico's foreign minister, Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, called the
request "a program of cooperation" rather than an aid package, and
said it would give Mexico "better tools to protect the population from
organized crime."

The proposal could face difficulties in Congress, where some members
have complained that Mexico and the Bush administration have been
negotiating for months in secret.

Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said he plans to hold a
hearing on the proposal Thursday.

"Congress was not consulted as the plan was developed. This is not a
good way to kick off such an important effort to fight the increase in
narco-trafficking and violence in the region," Engel said in a
statement. "I hope that the administration will be more forthcoming
with members of Congress now that they have announced the plan."

Few hard details are known about the Mexico aid package, which has
been dubbed the Merida Initiative because Bush and Mexican President
Felipe Calderon discussed it during a summit in the Yucatan city in
March.

The naming of the proposal has become a nettlesome issue, illustrating
the sensitivities of talks between Mexico and the United States.

In Mexico, the news media have dubbed it Plan Mexico, a moniker that
infuriates top Mexican officials because of its similarity to Plan
Colombia, an ongoing, multibillion-dollar program launched seven years
ago that sent U.S. troops to Colombia as part of an effort to
eradicate coca production and battle Marxist rebels.

The State Department released a general outline of the Mexico proposal
Monday, but Shannon declined to go into detail until meeting with
members of Congress on Tuesday. Shannon also said it was too early to
say how many years the program would last.

Shannon said the aid package would emphasize the use of civilian
authorities to combat drug cartels, but he added, "We recognize that
the military of Mexico does have a role to play."

Bush administration officials have praised Calderon for deploying more
than 20,000 soldiers and federal police officers to fight drug gangs,
but human rights groups have complained about use of the military
after a series of rapes and rights violations in which security forces
were allegedly involved.

Rights groups have also expressed concerns about whether training
conducted by the United States could someday help another generation
of Mexican cartel assassins. U.S. military instructors are widely
believed to have been involved in training some members of Los Zetas,
a group of former elite Mexican troops who serve as hit men for the
powerful Gulf cartel.

Shannon, who said he is aware of the history of Los Zetas, said, "We
can't allow ourselves to be dominated by fear about what might happen."

Joy Olson, director of the nonprofit Washington Office on Latin
America, said Monday she is concerned that the Bush administration did
not say which Mexican agencies would receive aid money.

"If they are allocated to civilian control structures, the funds are
more likely to have a positive effect in strengthening the rule of law
and civilian institutions," Olson said. "If funds are sent directly to
the receiving countries' military forces, the plan could undermine
civilian control of the armed forces and weaken efforts to strengthen
civilian public security institutions."

The administration released even fewer details about the Central
American aid plan, which it said would help combat drugs and human
trafficking. Those funds, Shannon said in the conference call, would
be "shared in some fashion with all the Central American countries."