R.J. Godlewski's The Independent Counterterrorist. I, Militia. June ...

honest, professional manner. The Merida Initiative has
only $1 million per year slated to aid in the reform of
Mexico’s courts—roughly one-quarter of 1 percent of
first-year funding. Vetting programs receive similarly
minor emphasis, and there are a number of issues
central to any meaningful anti-corruption initiative—
efforts to lessen the opacity of the banking system, for
instance—that are not addressed at all. In short, while
anti-corruption and human rights issues are not absent
from U.S. policy toward Mexico under the Merida
Initiative, they are not accorded the salience necessary,
given the gravity and scope of these problems. 130
The Merida Initiative is little better equipped to
confront the other factors that have so far impeded
progress in Mexico’s drug war. As currently designed,
the plan contains no social programs aimed at
preventing youths from gravitating toward the cartels,
nor does it feature economic development or povertyalleviation
initiatives. The U.S. experience in Colombia
since 2000 demonstrates that a failure to present poor
workers with legitimate work alternatives to criminal
activity can have a debilitating impact on even the
most aggressive counterdrug programs. On this score,
the Merida Initiative leaves much to be desired.
Nor will the Merida program likely do much to
deflect or impede the iron river of guns that supports
drug-related violence in Mexico. The Merida Initiative
overlaps somewhat a preexisting program known as
Operation GUNRUNNER, which has received a recent
funding increase. GUNRUNNER is meant to combat
the illicit arms flow by tracing guns used in Mexico
back to their origin in the United States. As this project
has unfolded, however, it has been overwhelmed by
the sheer volume of weapons heading south. While the
ATF seized nearly 1,300 guns headed for Mexico last
year, that number represents only a minuscule fraction
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