MEXICAN SOLDIERS BURN FLOUR INSTEAD OF COCAINE

Ceremony An Embarrassment For Military

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican army has arrested 3 soldiers and cashiered 23
others after members of a drug-fighting unit substituted flour for 15 pounds
of seized cocaine, then burned the flour during a high-profile ceremony
attended by schoolchildren and government officials.

The event became a prickly embarrassment for Mexico's military, which has
taken an expanded role in the fight against the country's drug cartels,
largely because many people believe the army is less corruptible than the
police.

After military authorities discovered the switch, all 550 members of 96th
Battalion, which operates on Mexico's side of the U.S. border from New
Mexico to the Big Bend area of Texas, were tested for drug usage. Nearly 100
soldiers failed and were asked to resign.

Twenty-three quit, said Rafael Macedo, the army's top legal officer.
Seventy-two others refused. They sent a complaint to the Human Rights
Commission in the northern state of Chihuahua, claiming that they had been
exposed to marijuana fumes while burning crops.

"They're arguing that they aren't addicts," said Jose Luis Armendariz, an
official with the commission. "They're saying they were exposed to marijuana
as part of their duties."

Macedo said army authorities were searching for a fourth soldier to arrest,
and that the number may rise as the investigation continues.

He said the failed drug tests are not in themselves evidence of involvement
in the switch and that no charges would be brought against the soldiers who
resigned.

The cocaine was supposed to be destroyed with approximately 2 tons of
confiscated drugs in the central plaza at Chihuahua on Oct. 21.

The highly publicized event was intended to showcase the military's success
in the war against drug traffickers and was attended by officials from the
Federal Attorney General's Office and groups of children.

Instead, it turned into yet another example of the challenges faced by
Mexico's anti-drug forces. It follows high-profile cases involving judges
who allegedly had taken bribes from drug gangs and disclosures that several
civilian members of special task forces had received payments from drug
lords.

The response of U.S. drug enforcement officials has been to pressure for
more involvement in the fight by Mexico's army, because it is considered
more professional and easier to monitor.

"The military is getting more involved in catching traffickers because the
government suspects and is probably right that the police aren't very
reliable," said Jorge Chabat, an expert in Mexican drug policy at CIDE, a
Mexico City think-tank.

However, the military suffered a major embarrassment in 1997 when Gen. Jesus
Gutierrez Rebollo, at the time Mexico's top anti-drug fighter, was arrested
on charges of receiving bribes from the country's top drug trafficker. He is
serving a prison term.