U.S.-Mexico Military Ties: Unexamined and Growing

US role in suppressing the Chiapas rebellion has stayed in the shadows.

by Norman Solomon
Creators Syndicate

When the United States and Mexico went to war 150 years ago, the conflict stirred fierce arguments north of the Rio Grande. Controversy raged as Congress approved a declaration of war on May 13, 1846.

Most newspapers endorsed the war with Mexico. The New York Herald claimed, "It is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country." But, in the same city, Tribune editor Horace Greeley demanded: "Is not Life miserable enough, comes not Death soon enough, without resort to the hideous enginery of War?"
The Mexican war split the ranks of literary notables as well. Poet Walt Whitman was enthusiastic: "Mexico must be thoroughly chastised!... America knows how to crush, as well as how to expand!" In contrast, Henry David Thoreau protested the war by going to jail rather than paying a poll tax.
Today, far from clashing on the battlefield, the two nations are engaged in extensive military teamwork. The growing martial alliance is not debated in the United States, where few people even know it exists.
News watchers remain in the dark while the U.S. government provides Mexican armed forces with high-tech military equipment and training to suppress Indian peasants. The aid has grave consequences for human rights.
Despite a flurry of news coverage after indigenous Mayans launched an uprising in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas at the start of 1994, the U.S. role has stayed in the shadows.
Yet, in his award-winning book Rebellion From the Roots, journalist John Ross cites Bell-212 transport helicopters obtained from the United States: "There is little doubt that the U.S. aircraft was used by the Mexican military to wage war on the Indians of Chiapas." At the outset, Ross writes, those helicopters "were utilized by the military to ferry prisoners and the dead."
When more than 100 Indians died in early January 1994, much of the lethal firepower came from the sky. Two months later, a Zapatista guerrilla leader known as Commandante Humberto told reporters in the town of San Cristobal: "We want the government of the United States to retire its helicopters because they are being used to repress the Mexican people."
But, instead of pulling back from military entanglement, Washington is now plunging ahead. In late April, Defense Secretary William Perry huddled with his Mexican counterpart, Gen. Enrique Cervantes Aguirre, to "explore ways in which our militaries could cooperate better."
The pair worked out an unprecedented deal. This year, the U.S. Department of Defense will give Mexico's air force about 50 helicopters - Hueys - originally developed for combat. Delivery of the first dozen is set for early summer.
Pentagon sources assert that this is the Defense Department's first direct transfer of aircraft to the Mexican military. "For us, it's a very big story, very important," says Jose Carreno, a Washington correspondent for the Mexico City daily El Universal. "We have been covering it. For whatever reason, the U.S. news media have not."
In theory, the Huey helicopters will primarily serve Mexico's anti-drug program. In practice, the Mexican command can do whatever it wants with them. "They don't have any strings attached," a top Mexican official explained on April 24. In any event, the copters are sure to strengthen the air power of a government that's still on a war footing with indigenous rebels.
Political bloodshed persists in the Chiapas region, where Indian guerrillas receive wide support from a native population that has endured lifetimes of poverty and racial discrimination - along with violent repression from Mexican police and government troops.
Amnesty International charges that human rights violators commit heinous crimes with "impunity" in Mexico. New documents from Human Rights Watch show that "government officials arbitrarily detained, tortured and forced confessions from suspects" during a crackdown in Chiapas last year. Torture and killings of peaceful protesters also occurred elsewhere in the country.
The latest independent reports make for grisly reading. But perhaps most upsetting is a statement by Human Rights Watch: "As it has in the past, the Clinton administration went out of its way to avoid criticizing the Mexican government on human rights issues."
Apparently, the White House is convinced that few of us will notice its shameful silence - or consider the dire implications as the United States widens its military pipeline into Mexico.

Norman Solomon's nationally syndicated column "Media Beat" appeared in The Seattle Times until the paper recently decided to stop running the commentaries. Those interested in seeing this column appear more often in Seattle should contact editors at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Solomon works with New York-based, media-watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

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