The United States gave its go ahead Wednesday to a 197-million-dollar, anti-crime and -drug trafficking program for Mexico, said US Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza.
The Merida Initiative, which US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a national security priority, totals 1.6 billion dollars in aid over three years for Mexico, Central American and Caribbean nations to deal with organized crime in their regions.
It will boost regional anti-crime efforts with additional helicopters and weapons systems.
"This letter of agreement we have signed frees up 197 million dollars of the 400 million the US Congress approved from its supplementary funds for fiscal 2008," Garza said after signing the document with undersecretary for North America Carlos Rico.
The ambassador said more than 136 million dollars are being funneled through "military cooperation and economic support funds," adding that another 43 million dollars will be freed up "once internal reporting requirements are met."
He said 24 million dollars would cover Merida Initiative administration fees.
First announced in October 2007, the initiative was approved in June by the US Congress.
Since December 2006, Mexico has deployed 36,000 military troops and thousands of police around the country in an operation aimed at clamping down on organized crime.
Despite the show of force, more than 4,500 people have been killed this year, many of them in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez where drug gangs vye for control of cross-border drug smuggling.
