US Senate report challenges Mexico’s reliance on military to fight drug violence

US Senate Foreign Relations Committee says use of military in Mexico to combat drug violence has been largely ineffective. A report of theirs recommends Congress to provide at least $250 million a year for the next four for the Merida Initiative, which should include spending for judicial and police reform to prevent corruption and human rights violations. 

AP: WASHINGTON — Mexico’s reliance on the military to combat widespread drug violence and crime has been largely ineffective and has led to increases in human rights violations, according to a congressional report released Thursday.

The majority staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which traveled to Mexico in April for extensive interviews with U.S. and Mexican officials, said in the study that the administration of President Felipe Calderon has made progress in confronting organized crime bosses, but the stopgap use of the military to pick up the slack for the police has had limited success.

“Heavy reliance upon the military to quell lawlessness and directly confront the narcotics syndicates appears to have been largely ineffective — and in some instances to have exacerbated the violence suffered by civilians,” the report said. Read more.