Located just down the street from the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, this unassuming compound might house a smorgasbord of U.S. government agencies, devoted to spying on drug cartels, crime syndicates the Mexican security services and anyone else its inhabitants feel like. But Pentagon says the truth is much more boring.

In a recent story for Mexico's Proceso, Jorge Carrasco A. and J. Jesús Esquivel introduced the world to the Office of Bi-National Intelligence, supposedly a joint U.S.-Mexico spy apparatus that isn't so Bi in practice.

Located at 265 Paseo de la Reforma, the "super spy center" is home to (deep breath) the CIA; the FBI; the Department of Homeland Security; the Treasury; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the National Reconnaissance Office, the NSA; the Defense Intelligence Agency; and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Not evidently included: Mexican agencies.

That might be because Mexican Presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon authorized and stood up the office "without taking into account any objections from the Mexican military," according to the *Proceso *piece, and allowed it to "spy on Mexican government agencies, including the Secretariat of National Defense, Navy, and the diplomatic missions in Mexico."

The U.S. government says it's doing nothing of the sort. Representatives from the Pentagon and the CIA say there is no Office of Bi-National Intelligence.

A Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Ditchey, says the compound is actually called the Bilateral Implementation Office for the Merida Initiative, a two-year old multimillion-dollar program providing U.S. aid to train Latin American law enforcement entities. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced its establishment in March 2009 during a Mexico City presser, and it opened its doors this past August 31.

"We have space within the office to use when we visit and attend coordination meetings," Ditchey says, "however, we do not have personnel assigned there at this time."

We're told by a different government agency – cough – there aren't any spies at the compound. Um, OK. But there appears to be information being exchanged at the facility. When announcing it, Clinton pledged that the Merida Initiative would "use every tool at our current disposal through administrative actions to track illegal guns, to arrest and punish those who are trafficking in illegal guns, to share more information with the Mexican Government so that they can also track and seize these guns."

Since the establishment of Merida, the United States has become involved in Latin American efforts to stop the flow of drugs and guns to the tune of $1.3 billion. Roberta Jacobson, a senior State Department official for Latin American affairs, bragged in April about seizing "record amounts of drugs" from the cartels and "strengthening institutions, working with the Mexican government on the expansion of their national police."

The United States has also provided Mexico with five Bell 412 Enhanced Performance helicopters for tracking and harassing the drug dealers – which has alarmed some in Mexico as a measure to even further militarize the increasingly violent struggle with the cartels.

And that's what really concerns the Proceso writers. As the U.S. military increases its training efforts in Mexico, they write, "the Pentagon has brought counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism expertise from Iraq and Afghanistan to their offices in central Mexico." Indeed, Robert Killebrew, a retired Army colonel now at the Center for a New American Security, argues that the best way to understand the rise in cartel violence across the Americas is through the prism of insurgency.

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been careful to avoid such characterizations. "In terms of helping Mexico, we're prepared to help the Mexicans insofar as they want our help. They are a sovereign state," he said in Bolivia yesterday. I would say that our military relationship is probably better now than it has been ever. But there are still obvious sensitivities in Mexico and we have to be attentive to those."

Still, should the United States ratchet up its aid to Mexico – or move firmly into spycraft down there – 265 Paseo de la Reforma is likely to be where it's coordinated.

Image: GoogleMaps

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