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A report published by the Federation of American Scientists revealed that between 1984-1993 Mexico obtained 10 times more U.S. arms than it accumulated between l950-1983.4 U.S. military aid provided to Mexico during the period 1982-1990 included F-5 aircraft, Bell 212 helicopters, C-130 transport planes and other aircraft, excess jeeps and light trucks, various communications equipment, and spare parts for U.S.-origin vehicles, planes and naval craft. In addition, Mexico leased UH-1H helicopters.5 And the U.S. sold or licensed $750 million worth of military equipment to Mexico’s various security forces between l982-l992, according to researcher Peter Lumsdaine with the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz, California.
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EXPANSION OF AID UNDER THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
From 1988-1992 the U.S. exported over $214 million in military equipment to Mexico’s army and police, some 16 times more than Mexico’s second place arms supplier, France.6 But it hasn’t just been military assistance that has defined the new relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. Under U.S. President Bush, then-CIA director William Webster warned in 1989 of increasing unrest and coup plotting in Latin American countries, and declared that in a post-Cold War era a bipartisan policy was necessary to support covert actions, including election support of friendly candidates, in the region. He particularly identified Mexico as an object of "far more attention than it has been in the past."7
A U.S. Department of Defense report for fiscal year 1992 declared that the U.S. wanted from Mexico a "secure, stable, and friendly" neighbor who would look increasingly to the United States for directions and dependency relating to military and international policies. This included an "apolitical" military.8 An earlier DOD report described the intention of U.S. military programs to Mexico as "expanding U.S. influence in the Mexican military."9
An October 1989, U.S. State Department Bulletin identified Mexico’s then (pre-NAFTA) strategic interests to the U.S.: a 2,000-mile common border that is the primary entry point for drugs coming to feed the U.S. demand, and the fact that Mexico is the second most important source of strategic raw materials, especially petroleum, strontium, fluorspa, and antimony.
Prior to the critical date, January 1, 1994 (when NAFTA became effective and the Zapatista uprising occurred), modernization of Mexico’s security forces was becoming ever more obvious. In the early 1990s the U.S. began supplying a number of helicopters, both to the Mexican Attorney General’s office which has had jurisdiction over the drug war, and to the Mexican armed forces. A 1994 Mexican Attorney General report identified an aerial fleet that included a variety of 47 U.S.-made Bell helicopters and 13 Cessna observation planes. A number of Mexican mechanics were authorized to be trained in the U.S. to maintain the new helicopters. In addition, the Mexican armed forces by early 1994 possessed 48 helicopters, at least 20 of which were U.S. Bell helicopters, and six sophisticated Blackhawk transports, as well as a number of smaller observation planes.10 Thus, by early 1994, Mexico had at least 95 helicopters.
Assistance in 1993 included millions of dollars worth of U.S. Huey and Bell helicopters along with C-130 Hercules transport planes which were used against the Zapatistas during the January 1994 uprising.11
A La Jornada article (Aug. 21, 1995) printed a chronological list of military equipment and sophisticated armaments acquired by the Mexican government from 1988-1994. The list included over 7,000 bulletproof U.S. Hummer armored troop transport vehicles, 78 helicopters, 78 fixed-wing planes, 1,615 machine guns, nearly 3,300 flame throwers, 360,000 grenades, and 266 electric prods. The latter have been traditionally used as part of interrogations/torture sessions by repressive regimes. The list included 1,500 other types of military vehicles, 1,000 parachutes, and hundreds of thousands of articles of field equipment such as combat rations, helmets, flack vests, canteens, night vision equipment, etc.
