Military aid to Colombia and Mexico slowly declines
02/14/12
Latin America and the Caribbean
The State Department yesterday released the first document outlining its foreign assistance request for 2013. Yesterday's "Executive Budget Summary" provides few details and lacks country-by-country totals for many programs.
Still, it allows us to provide a crude "snapshot" of how U.S. aid to the region looked in 2011, how it's looking this year, and what the Obama administration has in mind for next year.
Here is our best estimate of how U.S. military and police aid to Colombia, Mexico and Central America look between 2008 and 2013.
- The data show aid to Colombia's armed forces and police declining still further, to levels last seen before 1999, the year before "Plan Colombia" began.
- Aid to Mexico's security forces, while still far higher than pre-Mérida Initiative levels, continues to decline from the 2008-2010 period of large-scale purchases of expensive heliopters and aircraft.
- Aid to Central America's security forces, however, is holding steady.
| Military and Police aid to Colombia | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement | 223,124,500 | 228,089,000 | 194,750,000 | 180,350,000 | 130,600,000 | 128,200,000 |
| Foreign Military Financing | 52,570,000 | 53,000,000 | 55,000,000 | 47,904,000 | 37,000,000 | 30,000,000 |
| NADR - Anti-Terrorism Assistance | 3,288,000 | 2,750,000 | 2,750,000 | 2,250,000 | 2,250,000 | 2,250,000 |
| International Military Education and Training | 1,421,000 | 1,400,000 | 1,694,000 | 1,695,000 | 1,665,000 | 1,575,000 |
| NADR - Conventional Weapons Destruction | 427,000 | 2,500,000 | 2,500,000 | 2,500,000 | ||
| NADR - Humanitarian Demining | 400,000 | 2,000,000 | ||||
| Defense Department programs | 121,274,115 | 153,386,261 | 177,094,480 | 106,913,480 | 95,880,480 | 95,880,480 |
| Total Military and Police Aid | 402,104,615 | 439,025,261 | 433,288,480 | 341,612,480 | 269,895,480 | 260,405,480 |
| Military and Police aid to Mexico | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement | 292,298,000 | 343,500,000 | 89,500,000 | 98,000,000 | 88,000,000 | 64,064,386 |
| Foreign Military Financing | 116,500,000 | 39,000,000 | 265,250,000 | 7,984,000 | 7,000,000 | 7,000,000 |
| NADR - Anti-Terrorism Assistance | 548,000 | 3,000,000 | 3,000,000 | 4,500,000 | 4,500,000 | 4,500,000 |
| International Military Education and Training | 357,000 | 1,084,000 | 989,000 | 1,006,000 | 1,635,000 | 1,549,000 |
| NADR - Export Control and Border Security | 800,000 | 670,000 | 900,000 | 1,200,000 | 1,200,000 | 1,200,000 |
| NADR - Counter-Terrorism Financing | 175,000 | |||||
| Defense Department programs | 26,508,270 | 35,375,999 | 90,960,999 | 72,885,999 | 76,719,999 | 76,719,999 |
| Total Military and Police Aid | 437,011,270 | 422,804,999 | 450,599,999 | 185,575,999 | 179,054,999 | 155,033,385 |
| Military and Police aid to Central America | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
| International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement | 4,150,000 | 51,825,000 | 60,412,000 | 75,500,000 | 65,000,000 | 62,000,000 |
| Foreign Military Financing | 7,119,000 | 5,600,000 | 5,728,000 | 5,504,000 | 11,001,000 | |
| International Military Education and Training | 4,079,000 | 3,470,747 | 5,550,000 | 4,338,000 | 4,625,000 | 4,320,000 |
| NADR - Conventional Weapons Destruction | 500,000 | 500,000 | 500,000 | |||
| NADR - Export Control and Border Security | 250,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 |
| Global Peace Operations Initiative | 380,921 | |||||
| NADR - Humanitarian Demining | 350,000 | |||||
| NADR - Anti-Terrorism Assistance | 248,000 | |||||
| Defense Department programs | 32,136,813 | 28,071,909 | 36,545,428 | 53,285,428 | 39,548,428 | 39,548,428 |
| Total Military and Police Aid | 48,363,734 | 89,467,656 | 102,657,428 | 139,501,428 | 115,327,428 | 117,519,428 |
A few notes about these tables:
- These simplify or summarize information that you can find in more detail, and for more countries, elsewhere on the "Just the Facts" site.
- Cells on these tables shaded in light gray are estimates. In the case of the "International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement" program, which funds both military and economic aid, we estimated the military portion to Colombia and Mexico by prorating the administration's request according to the last available year's division between military and economic aid. For all other programs, we repeated amounts from the last available year. Actual numbers may differ significantly; we will update them on the "Just the Facts" website as we obtain them.
- These tables lump together "Defense Department programs" in one category. The vast majority of this assistance is from the Defense Department's counter-narcotics account. This Defense Department aid is _not_ part of, nor does it appear in, the State Department's budget request. We include it, however, because it is a big part of the picture, well over a third of the military-police aid total in all three tables.
- Central America is lumped together into one regional table because we still lack country-by-country breakdowns for much INCLE aid going through the "Central America Regional Security Initiative" category. We note that some of this INCLE aid may be going to judicial systems and other civilian institutions, and that the actual military-police aid amount may be lower. We will adjust these numbers on the "Just the Facts" website as we obtain them.