The $5-billion dollar anti-drug Plan Colombia may be in shambles, with little to show from the investment, but that hasn't deterred the Bush administration and some lawmakers from planning to send up to $1.2 billion to Mexico to help fight drug cartels and trafficking.

The Dallas Morning News reported Aug. 15 that U.S. officials are considering sending a three-year aid package to Mexico -- dubbed 'Plan Mexico' -- to help bolster the federal government's communications, training and technology as police and soldiers combat violent drug cartels.

"I would like us to be able to monitor some of the ongoing communication on the part of drug cartels up and down the border and in the interior of Mexico," said U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-El Paso), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Reyes said the U.S. faces the choice of helping Mexico or seeing drug-related violence spill across the Mexican border into Texas and other states.

"Unfortunately there is some kind of cottage industry in the 24-hour news cable cycle where people are whipped up into a frenzy ... and believe there cannot be any beneficial partnership with Mexico," Reyes said. "All those people need to talk to those of us who actually live along the border, those of us who represent the border."

"Even if the figure is half of [what has been suggested], say half a billion dollars, that would be a quarter of what we spend on Iraq every month. Can we afford investing in ourselves that kind of money? That's what we're talking about in helping Mexico help us in managing the border security," said Reyes.

Mexican mistrust of the U.S. also remains a stumbling block. "How wide do we open the door to the Americans? That remains a very sore issue. This is not Colombia," a Mexican official said.