President Obama recently withheld 26 million dollars from the 1.6 billion George W. Bush promised under the Merida Initiative to fight the "war on drugs" in Mexico. This is a step in the right direction; however, until the U.S pulls funding entirely for this flawed and diastrous initiative, Mexicans' human rights will continue to be violated in grave and egregious ways by the Mexican army.

In the time since Calderon took office in 2006 and declared a full-on war against the Mexican cartels, tens of thousands of soldiers have been deployed across Mexico. These soldiers are held accountable to no one but military courts, which quickly exonerate them of wrongdoing. They have gang-raped women, murdered families at checkpoints, tortured detainees, and stolen from and terrorized the population. Mexicans have protested the army's presence in many major cities in the north of the country, and more than 5,000 human rights complaints have been filed (hardly any of which have been investigated).

The United States continues to fund the Mexican army even as it violates the rights of Mexican citizens with impunity. It is time for President Obama to pull funding from the Merida Initiative until these human rights complaints are investigated and the army can be held accountable for its actions.