October 23, 2007 (LPAC)--Lyndon LaRouche has repeatedly stated that the only way to lift Mexico out of the devastation caused by two decades of free-market policies, and 14 years of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), is through the aggressive construction of cross-border infrastructural projects, that will benefit both Mexico and the U.S. Water, energy, transportation and other development projects are the only sane way to address such pressing problems as unemployment, poverty, violence and illegal immigration into the U.S.
Instead, the lunatic Cheney-Bush administration has come up with a U.S.-Mexico "anti-drug" plan, dubbed the "Merida Initiative," announced by Bush on October 23 as a request for "emergency financing for critical national security needs." Tacked onto the $46 billion supplemental budget request for war funding (and therefore requiring Congressional approval), the plan offers $1.4 billion over two years, to supply Mexican police and military with technology, equipment and training to aid them in combating drug cartels and cross-border violence, as well as "corruption" within their ranks.
But in a context in which Mexico faces an imminent social crisis, brought about by the IMF's economic policies and NAFTA's destruction of its agriculture and food supply, the only thing the Merida Initiative will do is plunge this nation into deeper crisis, while trampling on its sovereignty and national interests. President Felipe Calderon has loudly proclaimed that "combating the cartels" is his government's top priority; but by leaving free-market policies intact, he will accelerate Mexico's political and economic disintegration.
Mexican legislators and other analysts are aggressively questioning the plan, which has been shrouded in secrecy, charging that it is really just a Mexican version of Plan Colombia, the multi-billion dollar security plan, which has placed large numbers of U.S. military personnel and private contractors into that Andean nation as part of a "counter-narcotics" strategy that has been totally unsuccessful. As particularly ominous, they point to statements by Pentagon and White House officials, as well as some private intelligence analysts who are trumpeting the idea that drug-related violence in Mexico has now become a key regional security problem that requires multi-national intervention.
