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Details Given On Aid Plan For Mexico

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By MANUEL ROIG-FRANZIA, The Washington Post

Published: October 27, 2007

TIJUANA, Mexico - More than a third of the Bush administration's proposed counternarcotics aid package for Mexico would be spent on aerial surveillance and the rapid deployment of troops, according to a breakdown of the plan.

President Bush is proposing the purchase of eight transport helicopters and two surveillance planes. The $500 million aid package also would include $60 million to revamp the information management and forensics systems of the Mexican attorney general's office and to train police, court personnel and prison managers.

The breakdown of the plan, titled 'Overall Justification Document' and obtained by The Washington Post, is the most detailed glimpse yet of a secretly negotiated aid package that some members of Congress say should have been shared with them long ago.

The aid plan, which Bush announced Monday, is part of a $46 billion war funding bill that the White House is pressing Congress to approve before its holiday break.

Some Crucial Details Missing

While the breakdown, which has been given to key congressional offices, provides a list of spending items, it has rankled some congressional aides because it lacks crucial details about how the aid would be managed and how information would be shared between Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies.

'There are still a lot of questions,' a senior Republican congressional aide said in an interview. 'The real enemy is that it's going to get amended to death.'

The White House breakdown lists 'counternarcotics, counterterrorism and border security' as the largest segment of the aid deal, accounting for $306.3 million. It does not explain how the money will be used to combat terrorism. Bush administration counterterrorism officials have long feared that terrorists could slip into the United States from Mexico; beefing up border security could be interpreted as a counterterrorism effort.

The breakdown does not specify which agencies would be given aircraft, which have long been among the most coveted items on Mexico's wish list. The helicopters are Bell 412 models, a workhorse aircraft that would be used to deploy rapid-response forces. The surveillance craft are CASA CN-235-300 models that would be equipped in the same fashion as U.S. Coast Guard planes.

Running Into Trouble

Several previous U.S. programs that provided aircraft to Mexico have run into trouble. Operation Halcon, a successful, helicopter-based border surveillance program, was canceled in November 2006 because the United States and Mexico could not resolve accident liability issues. The White House's breakdown of costs for the current deal does not address liability.

A program that provided Vietnam-era helicopters to Mexico in 1990 was recently criticized by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. A GAO report said 13 of 41 helicopters given to Mexico since 1990 are no longer operable, that the craft didn't meet Mexico's needs, and that U.S. mechanical support for the aging helicopters is being discontinued.

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