Clough Marinaro, IsabellaHarris, PamelaPuga Herrera, Maria Jimena2025-03-122025-03-122017Puga Herrera, Maria Jimena. "The Failed War: The Merida Initiative". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2017.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14490/929Thesis (B.A. in Political Science, Minor in Business Administration)--John Cabot University, Spring 2017.Drug trafficking in Mexico has been an ongoing issue since the 1900s. Throughout this last century, many presidents in the United States have attempted to approach this issue in different forms. However, it was not until 2006 that Mexican President Felipe Calderón (2006 - 2012) signed a bilateral agreement between Mexico and the United States of America in order to eradicate drug trafficking called the Merida Initiative. A decade before this initiative was signed, a similar plan was created between Colombia and the United States of America. There are many similarities between both initiatives as most of the money that was financed by the United States, was assigned to the military, leaving the population with a insignificant portion of the money allocated to each plan. Throughout this thesis, while focusing mostly on the security aspect of the initiative, I will highlight the reasons why a military tactic in fighting drug trafficking was not the proper solution in either countries, as well as the differences between Mexico and Colombia which make it difficult to apply the same strategy in both countries. Furthermore, I will support my argument based on Immanuel Wallerstein’s world systems theory that highlights the relationship between Latin American countries and the United States of America.49 pagesenDrug controlDrug trafficCrime preventionThesis