The United States has withheld millions of dollars of aid from Mexico aimed at helping the country’s authorities combat drug cartels, amid concerns over its human rights record.



The State Department confirmed the decrease in funding on Monday – a 15% reduction that experts said is a symbolic slap on the wrist given the US’s previous unwillingness to criticize its partner despite widespread evidence that the country’s police and army have been involved in abuses.

The Washington Post first reported on the reduction in assistance to the Merida Initiative, an agreement under which the US has allocated $2.3bn to Mexico as part of a broader effort to fight organized crime and threats pertaining to drug trafficking.

Mark Toner, a deputy spokesperson for the State Department, told reporters on Monday that the agency was required to withhold 15% of certain Merida funding for Mexico until a report on human rights was submitted to the US Congress. This year, he added, the State Department “was unable to confirm and report to Congress that Mexico fully met all of the criteria”.

“Mexico’s struggle to combat organized crime remains a difficult challenge and we have made significant progress in this shared responsibility,” Toner said at a press briefing in Washington. “We continue to strongly support Mexico’s ongoing efforts to reform its law enforcement and justice systems – critical components to enhance the rule of law and protect human rights.”

Under the shift, the US has redirected $5m away from funding toward Mexico’s police and military officers and toward eradicating coca in Peru. Human rights groups have been urging the Obama administration to dock Merida Initiative funding following a series of incidents in which Mexican security forces were implicated in abuses that include torture, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Experts on Latin America said the 15% reduction was a sign the Obama administration was taking human rights seriously.

The administration “is sending a muted but still public signal to the Mexican government that its abuses must be addressed more effectively,” said Dr Gregory Weeks, an expert on Latin America who heads the political science department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “The decision packs an even greater punch because it comes right on the heels of criticism from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. It also coincides with protests within Mexico.”

“So the global message now is that President Peña Nieto will rapidly have to make more progress before getting credit for improving his government’s record. The Obama administration certainly would prefer not to feel compelled to cut Mexico’s funding, which underlines how serious the problems in Mexico have become.”

While Mexico has long grappled with allegations of abuse among its commanding officers, two cases last year underscored the direness of its human rights crisis.

Security forces allegedly executed at least 15 suspected gang members in June of 2014 after they had surrendered, and two women who said they witnessed the extrajudicial killings said they were tortured and sexually assaulted as part of a cover-up. The following September, the military was also implicated in the disappearance and killing of 43 students from the Teachers’ College of Ayotzinapa after a police shootout in the southern state of Guerrero.

Barack Obama referred to the latter event as “tragic” while hosting Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto at the White House earlier this year, but advocacy groups were disappointed that the US president did not push harder on human rights.

“Our commitment is to be a friend and supporter of Mexico in its efforts to eliminate the scourge of violence and the drug cartels that are responsible for so much tragedy inside of Mexico,” Obama said in the January meeting. “And we want to be a good partner in that process, recognizing that ultimately it will be up to Mexico and its law enforcement to carry out the decisions that need to be made.”