Congress approves anti-drug aid -Mexico

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Registered: 05-29-2003
Congress approves anti-drug aid -Mexico
Fri, 06-27-2008 - 8:23am

Congress approves anti-drug aid for Mexico, Central America


The US Senate late Thursday approved a 1.6 billion dollar, three-year package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean known as the "Merida Initiative."


The bill was approved by the House of Representatives on June 10, so the measure now goes to President George W. Bush to be signed into law.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid described the measure as "critical," and its approval "shows the strong Congressional support on both sides of the aisle for working together to tackle shared problems with our neighbors on such a vexing issue."

"Mexico and the United States have a shared problem and we must have a shared solution," Reid said.

Reid said that US officials "recognize that our voracious appetite for illegal narcotics has added to the problem at hand. We also recognize we must do more to stop the flow of the firearms contraband which is also exacerbating the problem."

The Merida Initiative was within the budget supplemental measure approved late Thursday that included 162 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An underworld war between rival drug gangs and police has escalated into open bloody conflict in Mexico in recent weeks, with more than 1,500 people killed this year, some 500 of them in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez alone.

On Thursday, unknown assailants shot to death a Federal Police commander and his bodyguard in a Mexico City restaurant at midday.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080627025404.45e79hwx&show_article=1

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