U.S. aid and involvement in Mexico has escalated alarmingly since the $13 billion economic bailout of Mexico by the U.S. in 1995. That influx of U.S. treasury credits, along with help from the International Monetary Fund (in which the U.S. is a leading player) has kept the Mexican economy afloat. Rather than working to solve the enormous economic hardships and social injustices of their country, the Mexican government has elected to use its solvency to procure high-tech weaponry and build up its military resources – despite the fact that there is virtually no external military threat to the security of Mexico.
In this drive toward creation of a military state on our southern border, the U.S. government has been a willing accomplice. U.S. Justice Department and FBI trainers are working in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero. In answer to questions from U.S. citizens regarding these developments, government agencies cite the "war on drugs" as the motive behind their actions. However, a review of the known facts on drug activity in Mexico does not support this explanation. [See related story, this issue.]
U.S. culpability in actions of the Mexican Army is clearly documented by the following list:
1996 - The U.S. government licensed $146 million in direct commercial sales of military equipment to the Mexican government by U.S. companies. While this is not direct military aid, the 1995 economic bailout of Mexico by the U.S. enabled Mexico to keep buying weapons.
1996 - 73 UH-IH "Huey" helicopters donated to the Mexican Air Force. The Pentagon agreed to offer parts for two years, and pilot training and maintenance equipment for 18 months. Thirty additional Hueys were given to the Mexican Attorney General's office, for a total of 103. The U.S. State Department confirmed that the helicopters would not be used exclusively for anti-drug operations. (La Jornada, May 17, 1996)
1996 - 153 Mexican army officers trained at the infamous School of the Americas (SOA), a training school at Fort Benning, Georgia, for Latin American military officers. Also known as the "School of Assassins," the facility has been implicated throughout Latin America in most of the region's worst massacres and human rights abuses.
1997 - 211 Mexican army officers trained at SOA. In recent years, since the Zapatista uprising and the Mexican army's counter-insurgency war in Chiapas, Mexican participation at SOA has moved from low to being the top country, with more officers that any other country training at SOA.
1996-97 - 3200 Mexican soldiers studied at the U.S. Army base at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, where U.S. Special Forces now train Mexican Special Forces troops. Special Forces soldiers are trained in jungle warfare to be the toughest soldiers. Historically these have been the leading edge of "low-intensity" campaigns such as the one being conducted by the Mexican army in Chiapas and other Mexican states. Also, trainers from the U.S. Justice Department, and the FBI (supposed to be a domestic agency), are working in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero.
1998 - President Clinton's 1998 budget proposal includes more than $21 million for programs to support "anti-drug trafficking" and military training in Mexico. (La Jornada, Feb. 8, 1998) Military supplies, and training for anti-narcotics work such as rural surveillance, are easily transferable to counter-insurgency warfare. Evidence shows that this weaponry and training are used most extensively in areas where Mexican civilians are being harassed and killed by military and paramilitary forces.
In a letter to a U.S. congressman released on April 5, 1998, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations called for hearings on U.S. military ties to Mexico. Citing the Acteal massacre and "continuing torture and killings," AI called on Congress to examine current end-use monitoring of weapons and equipment and to evaluate U.S. training of Mexican military personnel. The letter also made reference to a briefing on Acteal, and the situation in Chiapas, that was part of January's Congressional Human Rights Caucus. Regarding that briefing, the letter pointedly observes that "The ensuing question and answer period demonstrated how little information the press and the public has about US-Mexico military ties…"
Despite the escalating menace and callous lack of concern in the U.S., indigenous rebels in Chiapas remain defiant. As shown in the following excerpt from an EZLN communique dated Septemeber 12, 1997, the Zapatista spirit is as indomitable as that of the Viet Nam rebels, who were willing to struggle forty years to achieve their goals:
Every U.S. citizen needs to examine the real situation in Chiapas, and decide what is truly in the best interest of the country before it is too late. Should the U.S. continue to back a corrupt Mexican government that supports atrocity against its own citizens, and moves to punish such deeds only when exposed to the glare of international publicity? Would not U.S. national interests be better served by the emergence of actual democracy in Mexico?
The people of Mexico have a difficult task ahead as they struggle toward a genuine representative government. Their task would be considerably easier if U.S. aid were limited to humanitarian goods and training, such as improved agricultural methods, that support and affirm human life rather than death and destruction. Contact your representatives in Congress and urge them to press for an end to U.S. weapons sales and military assistance for Mexico. — Lynda Vaughn
[Military facts supplied by Piet Van Lier. Source is the Resource Center for Nonviolence, in Santa Clara, CA — unless otherwise noted.]