ANTI-DRUG AID PACKAGE WOULD GIVE MEXICO AIR-POWER BOOST

MEXICO CITY -- Nearly half of a new $500 million U.S. aid package for
Mexico would be used to purchase surveillance planes and helicopters
so that Mexican police can track drug traffickers who are often
better armed and operating faster vehicles than they are.

The aircraft would help the Mexican government build on its recent
success in cracking down on drug cartels, Thomas Shannon, the State
Department's top diplomat for Latin America, said Thursday in a
telephone interview.

The $500 million, which has not yet been approved by Congress, is the
first phase of a $1.4 billion anti-drug package that would be
distributed in the next three years. The surveillance aircraft would
help Mexican agents chase down the planes and speedboats that carry
cocaine from South America to remote areas of Mexico, where it is
then taken to the U.S. border.

The U.S. government has credited Mexican President Felipe Calderon's
aggressive anti-drug tactics with a reduction in cocaine supply in
several U.S. cities. However, the crash last month of a
U.S.-registered business jet carrying 3.2 tons of cocaine in Mexico's
Yucatan Peninsula shows drug planes are still slipping into Mexico.

About $208 million of the first wave of money would go toward eight
Bell 412 transport helicopters and two CASA CN-235 surveillance
planes, Shannon said. He said the aircraft would be new, avoiding a
repeat of the 1990s, when the United States donated more than 70
Vietnam War-era Huey helicopters to Mexico. The helicopters were so
expensive to maintain that Mexico eventually returned most of them.

"We're not going to do that again," Shannon said.

The Bell 412 is a more modern version of the Huey. The Spanish-built
CASA CN-235s are twin-engine turboprops that can fly at 280 mph and
land on short airstrips.

The U.S. Coast Guard flies a very similar plane, raising the
possibility of joint anti-drug missions in the future, Shannon said.

An additional $100 million in the first wave of U.S. aid would go
toward making Mexico's law enforcement system more effective,
including classes and equipment to help conduct investigations,
perform forensic tests, manage prisons and prepare court cases, Shannon said.

Another large share of the money would go toward X-ray machines, ion
scanners and other devices for searching cargo, he said.

The package also calls for a major increase in U.S.-led training
programs, although U.S. officials have stressed that U.S. forces will
not be going on missions with Mexican soldiers or police, and the
number of U.S. personnel operating in Mexico will not increase.

A small part of the $500 million would go toward weapons, Shannon
said. He declined to elaborate. Mexican police complain they are
increasingly outgunned by drug smugglers who buy assault-style
rifles, grenade launchers and hand grenades in the USA.

Some experts in Mexico worry that increased military activity will
lead to more drug-related violence. "I don't think (the aid) is going
to stop the violence in Mexico. It's going to exacerbate it, raise
the cost of drugs and worsen things," said Miguel Sarre, a criminal
justice professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico.