For years the United States and the Columbian government have been collaborating in what is called Planned Columbia which is a program conceived to eradicate drug production in Columbia. This program which has produced 60 billion dollars in investments from the United States has done nothing to curtail the production of cocaine in Columbia.  Indeed, production in that county has increased.

In 2007, the United States and Mexico  embarked upon a similar effort known as the Meridian Initiative or Planned Mexico, which is a negative reference to the Planned Columbia because it is expected to fail just as Planned Columbia failed.   In addition, some believe that the dual government program will produce significant deprivation  of human rights by the Mexican authority.

Although the program will direct some money to reform the corrupt justice system  in Mexico, the bulk of the money will be used for military training and hardware, including sophisticated  surveillance equipment.  The program is further complicated by reason of the fact that all of the money must be spent by the United State’s government  and in generally  that requires independent contractors engaged by the government.  The United State’s government’s prior experiences with  independent contractors have not been good.