Surprised?

Mica Rosenberg, Reuters:

As Mexico battles to keep a lid on raging drug murders, American companies are vying for millions of dollars worth of contracts for military equipment and training under a long-promised U.S aid package.

Private U.S. security firms will get the bulk of a $1.4 billion package pledged by the United States in 2007 to help its southern neighbor crush rampant drug gang violence. Only a fraction of the aid has been delivered so far.

Almost all of an initial $400 million tranche approved by the U.S. Congress in 2008 and being released bit by bit to buy helicopters and inspection gear and train Mexican police will be doled out to 30 or 40 U.S. companies, said an official at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, asking not to be named…

… A growing trend toward military outsourcing by the U.S. government has come under scrutiny in Iraq after Blackwater security guards were accused of killing civilians and a former Halliburton subsidiary allegedly overcharged by millions.

Some of the largest private security firms like Dyncorp, Northrop Grumman Corp  and Blackwater, which has changed its name to Xe Services, declined to say if they were bidding on Merida contracts for equipment or training.

The Mexican government is being picky about contractors, carefully checking their reputations. “There is a sensitivity on (their) part about Merida looking like Iraq, Afghanistan, or Colombia,” the U.S. embassy official said.

U.S. Democratic congresswoman Jan Schakowsky has raised concerns about using private contractors in the drug war abroad, saying monitoring their activities can be difficult.

“When they wear the badge of the United States there is a very clear chain of command and very clear rules,” she told Reuters. “These contractors tend to be very much independent operators.”