Washington has wasted $3 billion on two key programs with Mexico aimed at ending crime and violence by stopping drugs coming into the United States and closing the pipeline of weapons out of the country, according to a damning new audit.
“The U.S. government cannot demonstrate that it is achieving its goals in Mexico, or that its investments over the last 16 years have been effective,” the Government Accountability Office said.
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Despite being in place over three presidential administrations, the GAO found that the State Department programs have run on without any way to gauge their success. And when the goals of the programs were put side by side with the results, it was a list of failure.
“The United States has provided Mexico over $3 billion in assistance since 2008 to address transnational organized crime and violence, enhance the rule of law, and reduce drug trafficking. Despite U.S. assistance, Mexico’s security situation has worsened significantly, with the country’s murder rate more than tripling,” said the report on the Merida Initiative and the Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safe Communities.
While Mexico’s efforts have failed in the programs, so have those of the U.S., notably curbing the flow of weapons south and cutting demand for drugs.
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A list of the failures the GAO found:
- The U.S. has not reduced the demand for illegal drugs, notably fentanyl. The Drug Enforcement Administration, GAO said, blames fentanyl for causing more deaths under 50 than anything else.
- Overall, “hundreds of thousands” of people have died of drugs from Mexico, and more than 66% involve synthetic opioids.
- Firearms flow easily from the U.S. to Mexico. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said 70% of firearms recovered in Mexico originated in the U.S.
- Killings are up in Mexico.
