Latin America News – The budget proposal for fiscal year 2014 provides funds to reduce counternarcotics programs in Mexico and Colombia, increasing the resources of the Merida Initiative and Plan Colombia and increase funding for Central America.
The State Department requested $ 232 million for Plan Colombia – a decrease of 61 million from the fiscal year 2012 – and 205 million for the Merida Initiative, $ 124 million less than in 2012.
Instead, the funds required for the Central American Regional Security Initiative were $ 162 million, 26 million above the 2012 budget.
The State Department used the fiscal year 2012 as a reference because Congress had not approved the 2013 budget when it drafted the 2014 budget proposal, released Wednesday by the White House.
The decrease in funding for the Merida Initiative and Plan Colombia was expected, as the emphasis has shifted from buying more expensive equipment training and institutional strengthening.
Counternarcotics efforts in Mexico and Colombia have generated an active presence in recent years of organized crime in Central America, several of whose countries have one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
The draft 2014 budget provides for a total of $ 1.4 million in counternarcotics activities outside the United States, a decrease of 379 million compared to 2012, according to the Office for National Drug Policy (ONDCP for its acronym in English).
The total budget requested by the Department of State is of 47,300 million, and includes 4,000 million dollars on security to embassies in Libya after the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador, and significant reductions in their programs in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan .
The U.S. government presented its draft budget three weeks before President Barack Obama visits Mexico and Costa Rica, where he will meet with the presidents of Central America.
The commander of the Southern Command, Gen. John Kelly, said in March that the U.S. military spending cuts substantially limited his ability to keep 200 tons of cocaine seized at sea in 2012.
Obama proposed an expenditure of 3,800 billion for 2014, which seeks to increase taxes on cigarettes and reduce the benefits provided by Social Security.
Categoty: Latin America News
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
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