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Dear John R,
Tomorrow President Obama will host a state dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderón. High on their agenda is the future of the Mérida Initiative: the Bush-era program to fund Mexico's "war on drugs."
Thanks to Mérida, more than $1.4 billion of our taxes have already been dumped into this losing war. Despite a nearly tenfold increase in U.S. funding for Mexico's military and police, drug-related violence in Mexico continues to soar, claiming over 20,000 lives since 2006.
Has a single person been spared Mexico's drug violence because we bought 8 Black Hawk helicopters for the Mexican military? Conversely, how many lives have been ruined by that same military, which committed a reported 3,388 human rights violations in the last three years while receiving over $1 billion of U.S. tax dollars?
In the coming weeks Congress will decide whether to give this faltering counternarcotics program another year and $310 million of life. We cannot afford another year of Mérida. Please act now for an overdue change in direction:
- Submit a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. President Calderón's visit to Washington tomorrow opens a window in which newspapers are more likely to publish Mexico-focused letters, such as a call to replace Mérida. The window is only open this week, so please submit your letter today by clicking here. We've already created a sample letter--you just need to enter your zip code, edit as you please, and hit send.
- Contact your representative. Click here to send a quick letter asking your rep to replace Mérida with overdue funds for poverty reduction in Mexico and drug treatment in the U.S.
Mérida's failure to curtail drug-related violence stems from a failure to recognize the drug trade's roots: U.S. demand and Mexican poverty. As long as addicts in Los Angeles continue to provide an ample market for cocaine, cartels in Tijuana will kill to control that market. As long as Mexican youth see no legitimate employment alternatives, they will continue to work for those cartels. No one in the U.S. has been weaned off of cocaine addiction by Mérida's gift of night vision goggles to Mexico's police. No one in Mexico has found viable alternatives to drug-running because Mérida bought the Mexican Navy two surveillance planes. Help us unearth drug violence by grasping its roots: submit your letter to the editor and letter to Congress today.
The peaceful future that violence-stricken Mexicans seek cannot be found in the barrel of a gun, but in well-funded Mexican schools and well-stocked U.S. drug rehab clinics. Your public voice and informed advocacy help us move closer to that future. Thanks for taking action.
In solidarity,
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Ben Beachy
National Grassroots Organizer
P.S. This week is the window of opportunity for submitting a Mexico-focused letter to the editor of your local paper. Please click here now to send your letter and amplify the call for Mérida's replacement.
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