What $197 million to fight Mexico's drug war and $400 million in aid are buying! Death, Destruction and chaos, what's new?

With the chaos in America and around the world speeding up as I said it would as Bush's time hopefully winds down I have been saving the stories of growing chaos on America's southern Border. Today it is time to highlight what our money is Buying. Increasing death and Chaos growing out of control and a failed Mexican Government! What to do?

I have been following the increased violence and turmoil amongst the population at our friends site Border Explorer but it is becoming too much! The U.S. government finally released the first part of a $400 million aid package Wednesday to support Mexico's police and soldiers in their fight against drug cartels. The money comes at a critical time: Mexico's death toll from drug violence has soared above 4,000 so far this year, and drug-related murders and kidnappings are spilling over the U.S. border as well. U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza formally released $197 million at a signing ceremony in Mexico City. The rest will be disbursed throughout the year.

Garza said the Merida Initiative aid will enable the United States and Mexico to work more closely, sharing information on the cartels in real time. But many questions remain about the direction of this drug war, and both Mexico and Colombia, where 90 percent of U.S.-bound cocaine is produced, worry they'll be handcuffed by concerns about human rights and corruption once Barack Obama is president. "If the United States strips us of those resources, what will be done? Where will they come from?" Andres Pastrana asked in an Associated Press interview. The former Colombian president worked with U.S. President Bill Clinton to launch Plan Colombia, which has spent more than $6 billion in U.S. aid since 2000 to fight drug trafficking and leftist rebels. "Laying another one on Obama but he will not disappoint!

The aid to Mexico — which includes no cash — includes helicopters and surveillance aircraft, airport inspection equipment and case-tracking software to help police share real-time intelligence. It also supports Mexican efforts to weed out corrupt police, improve the judicial system and protect witnesses. Most of it, however, will go to notoriously corrupt police forces and the same military whose soldiers have tortured, raped and killed innocent civilians while battling the cartels, according to Mexico's National Human Rights Commission. President Felipe Calderon himself said more than half of state and local police can't be trusted, and federal ranks are rife with corrupt officers. The U.S. government has stood by Calderon. But Anthony Placido, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's intelligence chief, acknowledged the dangers. "Law enforcement work anywhere in the world, and certainly in Mexico, can be perilous," Placido said in October when asked whether Mexican corruption has imperiled U.S. agents. "Is it dangerous? Absolutely."

Colombia has been cleaning house as well: A week before Obama's election, President Alvaro Uribe fired 20 officers — including three generals and four colonels — for negligence in the biggest-ever purge of Colombia's military. On Nov. 4, the army commander resigned. Uribe also reversed his resistance to U.N. monitoring, saying he would assign a human rights ombudsman to every battalion. "The United States is a supremely important ally," Colombian armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla told the AP. "But it's an ally that doesn't provide aid and support blindly." Colombia places almost no restrictions on U.S. support, allowing U.S. soldiers and drug agents to operate freely in its territory. But Mexicans have always chafed at U.S. military aid, and Calderon's administration objected to human rights restrictions proposed by U.S. lawmakers, who ultimately dropped most of the conditions. The help still comes with some strings: The last 15 percent won't be released until the State Department confirms Mexico is meeting human rights and police corruption goals. The responsibility is ours

I see nothing getting better here! It is only getting much worse as our economy gets worse and time goes by. The only thing that will work is to dry up the drug market in America and that will never happen! At least three U.S. residents have been killed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in as many weeks as the death toll in the violent border city surpasses 1,400. Mexican cartels send message of chaos and death and Drug gangs use increasingly grotesque methods to influence public opinion.

Now Mexican narcotraffickers are gaining an increasing presence in Guatemalan territory. That was made clear Sunday, when at least 18 people were killed in a face-off between members of a local cartel and a Mexican cartel in a frontier zone between Mexico and Guatemala. "The hypothesis we have is clear, and it is that several cartels here that are operating in Guatemalan territory already have certain alliances with Mexican cartels, specifically the alliances that have been made for the passage of drugs," said Marlene Blanco Lapola, chief of the National Civil Police. Mexican drug cartels now infiltrating Guatemala

*Once again our money and influence is buying nothing more than death, destruction, insecurity, chaos, mayhem, what the hell is new? I am increasingly disgruntled with us and am nonplussed as to how I feel. Help me!

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com