Thursday, May 27, 2010

Mérida Money

As long as we're on the topic, here's a graphic from the AP of the Mérida disbursements through May. It's not quite as clear as it could be (for instance, what does the $5 million chunk that says "police, soldiers, etc" mean), but it does clearly demonstrate that what was to have been a $1.4 billion package has barely amounted to 10 percent that amount. I'd also like to see a graphic like this about the proposed spending under the Mérida Reloaded plan. As far as I know, all that's been made public is the promise to shift focus.

In other Mérida news, I read at some point that the name of the plan might change. (Sorry, can't find a link.) I'd like to propose the Cancún Concord as the new moniker.

3 comments:

David Agren said...

Who are these citizen watchdog groups getting $8.9 million?

Ken said...

I'd say that's good news, though even a penny of that money spent is a tragedy.

pc said...

Yeah good question. I've not paid close to attention any other bilateral aid package, so it may be that what the US gives to Egypt is far less transparent than this, but there's no good reason I can see that this info should be hidden. Is there any reason we can't have a spreadsheet with each of the specific recipients for each year, and what they spent it on?