The meetings coincide with a series of legislative hearings this week, during which it is expected that questions will be presented about the "final use" monitoring of the helicopters and other anti-drug equipment authorized to Mexico and Colombia by the United States, stated Congressional sources. These meetings also will be held when the Senate is considering its position regarding the certification of Mexico.
"We demand that the United States government conduct a full investigation of the type of military assistance that is being sent to this part of the world", stated Milo Yellowhair, vice president of the Oglala Lakota Nation, United States indigenous people. In an interview with La Jornada, Yellowhair said that, in the name of 455 indigenous groups of North America, he was offering their solidarity to those of Mexico.
Another member of the delegation, Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, stated that the United States is the principal provider of weapons to Mexico. "Ostensibly they are for the war against drugs, but we believe that that they are being used against the Mexican people", he stated. The delegation was meeting with the Latin American director of the National Security Council James Dobbins, with the director of the office of Mexican Affairs in the State Department, John Leonard, and in the next few weeks with the coordinator of human rights of the State Department and with officials within the office of anti-drug czar Barry McCaffrey.
The delegation, added Gumbleton, in addition is asking for the suspension of the provision of the 53 remaining helicopters promised to the Mexican Army as part of a pack of anti-drug assistance.
Reverend Lucius Walker, from Pastors for Peace, added that his organization considers that the United States was "directly involved" in covert activities to destabilize Mexico, and he also referred to contingency plans within the Pentagon which propose US open military operations in this country.
When various reporters asked Walker and the other members of the delegation about evidence, they offered a 41 page document with compilations of US and Mexican press reports, but they did not provide other proofs.
When a reporter stated that the Department of State has reiterated that it has "final use" monitoring procedures for all of this type of equipment, Walker stated that they were not adequate because they depended principally on reports by the Mexican government. "This is like allowing the fox to make a report about how he is guarding the henhouse", he stated ironically.
This week, various legislators are preparing a series of questions about U.S. military assistance to anti-drug efforts in Latin America, within the context of the yearly debate about the budget for these programs. La Jornada has learned that members of the Senate Appropriations Committee has developed a list of questions regarding the transfer of the U.S. helicopters to Mexico and Colombia. Some want to promote more assistance for Colombia, but various Democrats and Republicans have questioned the effectiveness of the monitoring of the equipment sent to Mexico. "There is going to be a debate about this", stated one advisor, but warned that the general accusations presented today by the delegation which was meeting with government officials possibly was not the most effective form for generating this debate.
In fact the Department of State has ordered its embassies to intensify the monitoring of the equipment provided to various countries, to ensure that it is not associated with human rights abuses. Amnesty International and other humanitarian organizations have asked the government of the United States to ensure that this equipment not be used to violate citizens' rights.
La Jornada, March 19, 1997
Civil Rights Defenders from this country ask that military assistance to Mexico be suspended
Jim Cason and David Brooks, Correspondents, Washington, March 18