Mexican president announces desire to withdraw from Plan Merida (5/14/2019)
Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, announced his intention to redirect Plan Merida aid towards economic programmes to stimulate the economy. The program has its roots in Felipe Calderon's anti-drug strategy that resulted in over 160,000 deaths.
In 2006, the incoming presidential administration of Calderon saw the programme as a way to maintain control over the then presidential candidate, Lopez Obrador, and an unruly public that viewed his election as a result of electoral fraud. They reached out to the Bush administration and used emissaries, like @Denise Dresser, to bolster what limited public support there was in the press. Dresser want as far as testifying in front of a US Senate hearing, ranting about the dangers of not employing a supply side interdiction programme.
