New Investment

The United States is planning a $5.6 billion investment to slow arms southward arms traffic, according to Carlos Pascual. Something doesn't add up here: the US allocated about one quarter of that figure for three years of spending on the Mérida Initiative, and it was a historic, unprecedented, game-changing spending spree. Now the US is planning to spend $5.6 billion on a subsection of what the Mérida Initiative was to cover, and no one bats an eyelash? No news as of yet on the US Embassy's website either.

Pascual also mentioned the following:

There are kids between 14 and 25 years old who have left school, are armed and 70 percent of them have become addicts and are paid in drugs. A lot of times we have found that it's not just one cartel fighting the other, but a battle between kids for control of a street corner.

Yes! (At least, "yes!" in regard to the second sentence; the first seems kind of loopy. I mean, 70 percent of kids who aren't in school and don't work are addicts who work for drugs? Really?) Gancho has made this point, as have others, but this is the first time I remember a high-level government official saying the same thing. It's an important realization.