U.S. Cuts Mexico’s Drug War Funding over Human Rights Violations

The constant allegations about human rights abuses by the Mexican government has led to the United States cutting back around 15 percent of the funding sent to help in the war against drugs.

For years the United States has been sending funds, training, and equipment to Mexico in an effort help them curb the raging drug violence in that country. Known as the Merida Initiative, in December 2008, the U.S. Government and Mexico kicked off the effort to help Mexico deal with their out of control cartel problem. As part of that initiative, Mexico has received aircraft, helicopters, and other military vehicles, Breitbart Texas reported

However the U.S. Department of State just announced that they would be taking 15 percent of those funds away from Mexico.

“Per congressional legislation, the State Department is required to withhold 15 percent of certain Merida funding for Mexico until a report on human rights is submitted to Congress,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said in a prepared statement sent to Breitbart Texas. “This year the department was unable to confirm and report to Congress that Mexico fully met all of the criteria in the Fiscal Year 2014 appropriation legislation and the 15 percent was redirected away from Mexico.”

The continuing coverage by Breitbart Texas shows that this year, Mexico has faced harsh criticism worldwide as the violence and corruption in that nation continues to spiral out of control and the number of innocent victims continues to climb. Despite the multiple assurances by that government that security conditions are improving, various high profile massacres have proven otherwise.

The most famous case of human rights abuse comes deals with the kidnapping and likely execution of 43 education students from the rural community of Ayotzinapa. Initially, as Breitbart Texas reported, the  government claimed that the students had been arrested by police and turned over to a local cartel who then executed them, incinerated them, and disposed of their ashes.

That version of events became known as the “historic truth” which has been debunked by a team of foreign experts that the Mexican government had been consulting, Breitbart Texas reported.

Another high profile case deals with a shootout in the central Mexican town of Tlataya where Mexican authorities killed  22 gunmen. As reported by Breitbart Texas, the issue in that case deals with whether the soldiers killed the gunmen in a battle or if they had surrendered and been executed afterwards.

While drug cartels continue to victimize the public at will in that country, the cases of human rights by authorities continue to be alarming. In the border city of Matamoros, close to two dozen federal police officers ended up behind bars for kidnapping and extorting large sums of money from area businessmen, Breitbart Texas reported.