how does the merida initiative address the issue of corruption among local police officers if merida does not address this issue, what action do you recommend to the committee to counter the corrupt police officers -- corrupt police forces on what the initiative is to accomplish? question for the panel. >> let me start, congressman, and i start by the last sentence i offered in my testimony, and it took us many years 20 get into the situation, it 4r take years to get out, and corruption clearly falls into that category. what are we doing now? first, attempting to professionalize. first the federal police forces and increasingly in the future, the state and local police forces because a professional law enforcement institution is less likely to be corrupt than a non-professional one. second, we're supporting the development internal investigating capability, a municipal, state, or federal police institution, individuals within the police force whose job is to monitor, investigate, and sanction corrupt members of the institution. third, we are ensuring they have salaries you can live on

how does the merida initiative address the issue of corruption among local police officers if merida does not address this issue, what action do you recommend to the committee to counter the corrupt police officers -- corrupt police forces on what the initiative is to accomplish? question for the panel. >> let me start, congressman and i start by the last sentence i offered in my testimony, and it took us many years 20 get into the situation it 4r take years to get out and corruption clearly falls into that category. what are we doing now? first, attempting to professionalize. first the federal police forces and increasingly in the future the state and local police forces because a professional law enforcement institution is less likely to be corrupt than a non-professional one. second, we're supporting the development internal investigating capability, a municipal, state, or federal police institution individuals within the police force whose job is to monitor investigate, and sanction corrupt members of the institution. third, we are ensuring they have salaries you can live on. if y

how does the merida initiative address the issue of corruption among local police officers if merida does not address this issue, what action do you recommend to the committee to counter the corrupt police officers -- corrupt police forces on what the initiative is to accomplish? question for the panel. >> let me start, congrsman, and i start by the last sentence i offered in my testimony, and it took us many years 20 get into the situation, it 4r take yes to get out, and corruption clearly falls into that category. what are we doing now? first, attempting to professionalize. first the federal police forces and increasingly in the future, the state and local police forces because a professional law enforcement institution is less likely to be corrupt than a non-professional one. second, we're supporting the development internal investigating capability, a municipal, state, or federal police institution, individuals within the police force whose job is to monitor, investigate, and sanction corrupt members of the instition. third, we are ensuring they have salaries you can live on. if y

we believe dhs's use neck skills contributed greatly to the merida initiative. want to note that merida initiative marked a change in the nature and extent of mexico on security and law enforcement issues. we saw this at the policy level and the ground. as part of the shift, it led to a significant rframing and reorganization of much of our bilateral eamingment. it's now framed around four pillars. we focus on pillar three, creating a 21st century border. during the state visit, president obama and calderon noted the work accomplished under pillar three. their joint statement set a policy vision articulating that, "the 21st century border must ensure the safety and security of residents and communities along both sides of the border." they affirm the interest of mexico and the united states to allow entry into the countries of people who pose a threat to national security. the 39's board of vision shows the need to manage the border and manage it in a holistic fashion. this policy vision requires moving beyond guarding the line between the united states and mexi

my own view is that the merida initiative is in transition, and part of that initiative addresses that issue, the transition of support from federal institutions and organizations to support for state and local organizations and institutions -- police, prosecutors, courts, municipal governments. the extent to which we are able to make that pivot, that transition, to strengthen the states of northern mexico, particularly the five states that border on the united states of america will address that specific issue. >> i thank you, mr. ambassador, and mr. chairman, my time is up. >> let me say now that i have the chair, i'll be more generous. [laughter] >> allow me a point of personal privilege, want to welcome paul stockton to the committee. we worked together many, many years ago, and it's good to see at least one of us did well. [laughter] >> congressman, i can see who did well, and, again, thank you and all the members of the committee for your contributions and leadership. >> well, thank you for that, and chair now recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. higgins. >> thank you, mr.

we talk about merida initially and when we announced the initiative in october of 2007, we were told would be a three-year program, and last year we had the announcement of beyond merida and continued funding to the fy 20112012 budget, so it appears that it's here to stay for the near future. how long has the of patrician planned for the funding initiative to continue should it continue for the foreseeable future or should we phase it out and do something new? investor? >> that is a perfectly legitimate question and you have every right to grow less on this question every time we come before you. my answer once again is filtered through my experience in colombia. another example of a program where we set out saying it is a five-year program. we are now wrapping up the year 12 of the program. but, it's down to a level that is now about 25% of where we were when we started it in the year 2000. that doesn't strike me as an and coherent way of approaching the mexico challenge. the simple and simplistic answer to your question as we are going to deal with the realities on the ground that a

the part of this project that i am responsible for, which is the merida initiative, obviously, we wantassure the support, the technology, the cooperation that we are providing to and with the cooperation of the government of mexico will also address this sort of threat. failing to do that would make us guilty of stupidity, and while i'm willing to be many things, i prefer not to be stupid. what we obviously have to do and what we are doing is assessing the nature of our programs, the organizations that we are working with, the institutions that we are working with to ensure that they are better able to address this sort of threat in the future. in my opinion, what we have done over the last four years has contributed to foiling this plot, and i think for that, we all should owe ourselves a debt of gratitude. >> i think you make a good point, mr. ambassador, but part two of the inquiry has to do with concern about stability in northern mexico because it looks like, frankly, the situation has gotten worse. how concerned should we be about a de facto failed state in the northern part of m

together in regional efforts, engage other partners and support our essential plan colombia, merida initiativeely exist. i served three very long years as ambassador to venezuela. when i arrived in 2004, the diplomatic list showed fewer than 10 diplomats assigned to the iranian embassy. when i left in 2007, the number was above 40. iranian ambassador never told me what his people were doing, but i assume they were doing something. and if you had asked me when i left argentina in 1989 the prospects for massive terror attacks within five years supported by the iranian government that would kill more than 100 innocent people in buenos ares i would have said that probability was very remote. i would have been wrong, dead wrong. members of the committee our mission is to assess the threats to the western hemisphere and to have projects to solve them. i believe our highest priority right now is central america but we cannot lose sight of mexico, colombia, the caribbean and the andes. we must look ahead to tomorrow's priorities. i see an emerging trafficking threat from south america across the atlan