Saturday, November 10, 2007

I am a Mexican citizen troubled by The Post's unreserved editorial support for the M¿rida Initiative, a plan to give $1.4 billion in U.S. military aid to the Mexican government over the next three years to support President Felipe Calder¿n's fight against narcotics traffickers ["Help for Mexico," editorial, Nov. 7]. As Mexicans, we have had a front-row seat to repeated costly failures of U.S. military-led plans to defeat the narcotics trade.

Mexico needs aid to develop economic opportunities that give poor people alternatives to emigrating or working for drug traffickers, not military solutions to social problems. If history is a guide, the proposed military offensive in Mexico will merely weaken some factions of the narcotics trade while strengthening others.

HECTOR E. SANCHEZ

Mexico Program Policy Education Coordinator

Global Exchange

Washington

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The Post editorial rightly focused on the importance of support for an administration in Mexico that is arresting drug gangs, extraditing traffickers and promoting respect for the law in that country. Congress has been sent a plan that will help, and its impact will be felt in the United States as well as in Mexico.

Thirty years ago, a similar but smaller initiative was launched along these lines. The result was a dramatic decrease in heroin imports into the United States and a decrease in heroin overdose deaths by more than 50 percent within three years. A partnership with Mexico in the fight against illegal drugs is in everyone's interest.

PETER B. BENSINGER

Chicago

The writer headed the Drug Enforcement Administration from 1976 to 1981.