Reyes And Calderon Meet In Mexico

by ABC-7’s Rachel Abell

The United States needs to do more to help Mexico fight their war against drug cartels.

That’s the message from El Paso Congressman Silvestre Reyes.

The congressmen just got back from a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Congressman Reyes was joined on the trip by Congressmen Ike Skelton of Missouri and Howard Berman of California.

“There is now in Mexico a government and an administration that has decided no more business as usual,” Berman said.

The trio talked with President Calderon about how he thinks his government is handling the drug violence, especially on the U.S./Mexico border.

They were also there to talk about the Merida Initiative, a law that sends a total of 1.4 billion dollars to aid to Mexico and Central America over a three year period.

The men say they wanted to see how that money is being used and whether it’s helped.

They also discussed other ways the United States can help Mexico.

“We could easily double the amount of money that we’ve committed,” said Congressman Reyes.

The three congressmen also had a chance to speak with Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz to hear how his city has been hurt by the cartel violence.

All three called his efforts there “courageous”.