Conditions? What conditions?

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Advocacy groups are raising a red flag about the human rights conditions attached to the Merida Initiative, President Bush’s aid plan for fighting drug cartels in the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico.

Both the House and the Senate versions of the initiative say that 25% of the total funds to Mexico will be withheld until the U.S. secretary of State reports to Congress that Mexican law enforcement agencies are not involved in corruption or human rights abuses. Those conditions have riled Mexican officials. But Amnesty International USA is warning that the House version in effect has a loophole: It says the 25% will be withheld until the secretary ‘reports’ to Congress on the human rights criteria, whereas the Senate version says the 25% will be released when the secretary ‘determines and reports’ to Congress that the Mexican government is meeting the criteria.

Without the word ‘determines,’ Amnesty officials say, the full aid -- including that 25% -- could be given no matter what the secretary reports.

‘This is a loophole that would make some of the human rights conditions effectively disarmed,’ said Renata Rendon, Americas advocacy director for the group.

‘If the final version of the law only required a report and not a determination that the criteria are being met, it might appear that there are strong human rights protections attached to 25% of the assistance when in fact there would not be,’ Rendon said. ‘Those opposing the human rights conditions could be satisfied knowing that the conditions were there on paper but did not have the teeth they appeared to have.’

-- Nicole Gaouette in Washington