MEXICO GROUNDS 72 U.S.- DONATED HELICOPTERS

Safety concerns cited over Vietnam-era models

MEXICO CITY - Mexican authorities have grounded 72 U.S.-donated Huey
helicopters pending an investigation into potentially deadly "technical
flaws."

The move comes just days before U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey is scheduled
to meet with his counterparts in Mexico City to discuss counternarcotics
strategies.

Mexican officials say they are taking the helicopters out of service
because of safety concerns. A U.S.-donated Huey UH-1 was forced to make an
emergency landing Nov. 21 while searching for drug crops 50 miles northeast
of Mazatlan, Mexico, officials say. They cited an engine problem in that
incident.

There have been concerns about the reliability of older-model Hueys on both
sides of the border. All 72 of the U.S.-donated helicopters are Vietnam-era
Huey UH-1s, worth about $250,000 each.

"The UH-1s are war horses. They're good for getting a dozen guys on ground
and into action fast," said Robert Nieves, former director of international
operations of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "But they are getting
pretty old. Comparing them to some of the newer helicopters is like
comparing a Jeep of the 1960s to the Humvees of today."

Just last month, the U.S. Army and the National Guard grounded their UH-1s
over safety concerns.

The U.S. government delivered the 72 UH-1s to Mexico in 1996 and 1997,
generating good will but also controversy and criticism.

Members of Mexico's political opposition repeatedly have accused the
government of using U.S.-donated military equipment against the Zapatista
rebels and other insurgents scattered across the country. Mexican
authorities deny that.

In the United States, meanwhile, some say Mexico shouldn't get any
helicopters at all because Mexican law enforcement officials have
traditionally misused donated equipment.

"At the very least, there should be some oversight," said Phil Jordan,
former director of the El Paso Intelligence Center, jointly run by the Drug
Enforcement Administration, the FBI, CIA and other agencies. "There has
been a lot of abuse."

In the 1980s, for instance, Mexican agents used U.S.-donated helicopters to
spray liquid fertilizer on illicit crops, Mr. Jordan said. The helicopters
were meant for just the opposite - to spray herbicides on the plants.

On other occasions, Mr. Jordan said, Mexican agents deliberately mixed
herbicide with dirty water to jam up the helicopter's spraying mechanism so
that traffickers' crops wouldn't be harmed.

Or they used the helicopters for personal trips, he said.

"If they didn't spend half their flight hours flying their girlfriends
around the country, they'd be better off," said another former U.S. law
enforcement official who requested anonymity.

Mexican authorities defend their use of the donated helicopters and say
they are destroying more illicit drug crops than ever.

Brig. Gen. Luis Arturo Oliver Cen, who coordinates drug crop eradication
for Mexico's anti-drug agency, said 25 helicopters are in operation at all
times - and for official business use only. Ten to 12 of the helicopters
spray herbicides on fields of marijuana and poppies. The others provide
security, he said.

"Spraying drug crops can be dangerous," he said. "Last year, traffickers
shot at our pilots 39 times. Fortunately, no one was killed."

Rather than point fingers or get mixed up in controversy, U.S. and Mexican
officials say they want to work together against the drug gangs. As part of
that effort, Gen. McCaffrey is scheduled to arrive Monday for a series of
meetings with Mexican officials.

Thanks to these periodic encounters, the "prickly" relationship between the
two countries over the drug issue "has given way to one of cordiality and
of cooperation," Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green said.

Despite such talk, some analysts believe that Mexico is playing politics,
trying to pressure the United States into donating more modern aircraft.
Others aren't so sure.

"Unlike the Peruvians and the Bolivians, the Mexicans don't tend to rattle
their tin cup and ask for better stuff. They're too proud for that," said a
former staffer at the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, now headed
by Gen. McCaffrey.