MEXICO CITY (AFP) — Mexico welcomed on Friday the US Congress's approval of 400 million dollars in aid to equip the government in its deadly campaign against drug trafficking.
"I am sure that this initiative will contribute to our governments' improved collaboration and greater efficiency in the fight against organized, transnational crime," said President Felipe Calderon.
Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino called the move a testament to "the maturity that our dialogue has reached."
The White House, however, had expressed disappointment after the bill passed Thursday, noting that lawmakers had cut 50 million dollars from the 450 million that US President George W. Bush had requested.
The money approved Thursday was part of a 1.6-billion-dollar, three-year package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean known as the "Merida Initiative."
Since December 2006, Mexico has deployed 36,000 military troops and thousands of police around the country in an operation aimed at clamping down on organized crime.
Despite the show of force, more than 1,500 people have been killed this year, some 500 of them in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez alone.
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