TRAINING OF MEXICAN DRUG FORCE ILLUSTRATES CHANGING MISSION

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina---The U.S. Arrny is providing training to
Mexican soldiers for the first time in an effort to create an elite
counter-narcotics unit that American officials say has become the leading
force in Mexico's fight against international drug trafficking.

The program started 18 months ago, includes training some 1,067 Mexican
officers a year at more than a dozen bases across the United States,
according to American officials and congressional documents.

In addition, the Central Intelligence Agency is giving extensive
intelligence courses to a group of about 90 Mexican officers who will
become part of the new force, according to military and law-enforcement
officials.

Although the training and equipping of the Mexican units is not secret, the
program has been played down on both sides of the bprder because of Mexican
sensitivities to a political backlash over the extent of the aid. Because
it is illegal under Mexican law for military "units" to be trained outside
Mexico, American and Mexican officials said, officers are chosen from
different units and sent to the United States as "groups."

American and Mexican of ficials said they had turned to the Mexican army
because of rampant corruption among Mexico's civilian law enforcement
agencies. But the programs have been criticized in the U.S. Congress and by
human rights groups, which argue that while the military's lead role in
counter-drug efforts is being portrayed as a temporary measure, the influx
of resources will give it enduring authority over newly created, more
accountable civilian organizations.

Officials involved in the program acknowledge that in order to secure
Mexican participation they agreed there would be no formal American
monitoring of the performance of groups that receive U.S. training. As a
result, there is little oversight of how the training and intelligence is
used in Mexico by a military with a long history of corruption and human
rights abuses.

The programs reflect an upsurge in American counter-drug aid to Mexico,
which has grown from $10million in 1995 to $78 million lastyear, according
to State Department figures. About 60 percent of the cocaine on the streets
of the United States has been shipped across the Mexico-U.S. border,
according to law enforcement officials.

Mexican and American officials say they envision the Mexican military
taking the lead in anti-narcotics efforts only in the short run, until
police and civilian authorities have the means to confront powerful drug
cartels. One senior Defense Department official involved in the program
said promoting the Mexican military's involvement was necessary to avoid
"the complete criminalization of their state."

The most specialized of the field training is provided here by the U.S. 7th
Special Forces Group. A total of 252 Mexican army officers have taken the
12-week course, divided into six groups of 42 men each, over the last 18
months. An additional 156 officers are scheduled to be trained this year.
Their curriculum includes helicopter-assault tactics, explosives, rural and
urban warfare, and operational intelligence gathering.

Officers graduating from the Fort Bragg courses are the backbone of a new
elite Mexican unit, the Airmobile Special Forces, known by its Spanish
acronym GAFE. In addition to the training of of ficers, the United States
has provided the Mexican military with 73 Huey UH-lH helicopters and four
C-26 airplanes for surveillance. Mexico has purchased two U. S. Knox-class
frigates, according to the White House drug office.

The U.S.-Mexican cooperation is a stark contrast to the distrust that had
long existed between the two militaries, which had virtually no direct
contacts until recently. Relations between the civilian agencies in charge
of anti-drug operations on both sides of the border also soured in 1993
when Mexico rejected rr.ost U.S. aid in favor of a policy of
"Mexicanization'' of the war on drugs.

But in 1996, with Mexican drug-trafficking organizations growing in
strength and rivaling the traditional Colombian cartels for primacy in the
U.S. market, then-Secretary of Defense William Perry requested the Mexicans
allow military training, and the aid resumed.

While much less visible, sources familiar with the counter-drug program in
Mexico said, an equally important element is the elite 90-person
intelligence unit within the army that is being trained by the CIA.
American and Mexican officials say the CIA-trained unit could have a more
important long-range impact than the special forces or other ground troops
because it is crucial to developing the intelligence that is essential to
identify the drug leaders and develop a strategy for dismantling
trafficking organizations. But sources familiar with the intelligence
operation said the intelligence passed on to the Mexican unit is screened
because of the residual mistrust that exists between the two countries.