Political Quotes

“the fiscal year 2008 supplemental appropriations bill provides $450 million for the Merida Initiative, including $350 million for Mexico and $100 million for Central America, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. This is the first installment of an ongoing commitment to help our neighbors to the south respond to the growing violence and corruption of heavily armed drug cartels. It represents a tenfold increase in assistance for Mexico in a single year. The Merida Initiative is a partnership, and we recognize that achieving its goals presents an extraordinarily difficult challenge. The United States is the principal market for most of the illegal drugs coming from Mexico and Central America. We are also the source of most of the guns used by the Mexican and Central American cartels. Each country contributes to this problem, and we each have to be part of the solution. President Calderon and President Bush deserve credit for the Merida Initiative. Better and more cooperative relations between our countries are long overdue. It is unfortunate, however, that neither the Mexican or Central American legislatures, nor the U.S. Congress, nor representatives of civil society, had a role in shaping the Merida Initiative. There was no refinement through consultation. I first learned of it from the press, as did other Members of Congress.”