Lose the Merida conditions, Bush says

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President Bush urged Congress today to greenlight an aid package for Mexico that isn’t saddled with ‘unreasonable’ conditions.

Both the House and Senate have passed versions of the Merida Initiative, Bush’s three-year, $1.4-billion initiative to help fight drug cartels in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. The House would give Mexico $400 million in the plan’s first year, while the Senate would allocate $350 million. But in both versions, Congress has attached conditions requiring the Mexican government to make sure its law enforcement officers aren’t involved in human rights abuses or corruption.

Mexican Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino said recently that his country would reject ‘conditions on the spending of resources.’ Today, Bush tried a softer appeal.

‘We’ve encouraged nations threatened by narco-traffickers to cooperate in protecting their people,’ he said in a statement. ‘I asked Congress to approve the request quickly in the supplemental without putting unreasonable conditions on the vital aid.’

-- Nicole Gaouette in Washington