Cut to the chase

Burro Hall on your (North of the Border) tax dollars at work here in Mexico:

Six months after we (America, not Burro Hall) promised Mexico a billion and a half dollars to exacerbate the war on drugs, the first few sackfuls of cash have started to shake loose. Like most foreign aid, the vast majority of these dollars will be spent in the US, not Mexico. But one thing that is being built in Mexico, we note with interest, is several dozen “laboratorios” for detecting false immigration documents. How excellent – more money and power for La Migra!

Of course, on the list of antisocial activities committed by the cartels, sneaking into the country on false papers is pretty far down the list. But then this whole Initiative is more about furthering US goals in the region than fighting the scourge of drugs, as the people in charge of it all but admit.

Checking for false IDs  — paid for by  “Plan Merida” — has more to do with finding contracts for software vendors than with finding narcos.  Funny that none of the press releases or news stories mention who got the contract to develop the software… and whether or not we Mexican taxpayers will be stuck for the maintence and service contracts on this.

Besides, what difference does it make to Mexico if gangsters use phoney ID cards?  Aside from a few Miami Mafiosi and the  occasional rogue wannabe crime-buster, foreign criminals don’t have much to do with our “War on (some non-pharaceutical) drug (exporter)s”.