A tale of wagging the dog…
The Secretariat of National Defense has a “world class” dog training insitute, and has for the last twenty years. Of course, those are Mexican dogs, trained by Mexicans, and economically benefitting Mexico. So, naturally, the Merida funds for increased dog training are being used to import U.S. dogs, U.S. dog handlers and “consultants”.
This reminds me of the time Colombia, looking to spend “Plan Colombia” funds on actually doing counter-narcotics work, sought to buy Brazilian-built Tucana jets (specifically designed for Latin American jungle reconnaisance) but was forced to buy U.S. built F-15s instead — not particularly useful for their intended purpose (though nice if you want to invade Ecuador, which is what they were used for), but then, Plan Colombia, like the Merida Initiative, was only incidentally about narcotics control and if you still believe otherwise, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
The immensely improved The (Mexico City) News website has more on Mexican complaints about Merida funding.
Photo: Luis Cortés, El Universal
Sombrero tip: Ganchoblog.
The Mex Files 