MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would cancel the planned purchase of eight military helicopters from the United States as part of cost-cutting measures.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Navy Sailors participate in a medical training exercise on the deck of the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Lassen (DDG 82) with an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter, in the South China Sea, October 28, 2015, provided by the U.S. Navy. REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Corey T. Jones/Handout via Reuters
Lopez Obrador, who handily won this month’s presidential election on pledges to fight corruption and cut government waste, said there had been plans to pay 26 billion pesos ($1.36 billion) for the helicopters to be used by Mexico’s navy.
“This purchase is going to be canceled because we can not make this expenditure,” Lopez Obrador told reporters on Wednesday after meeting with incoming legislators from his MORENA party.
Lopez Obrador is due to take office on Dec. 1.
In April, the U.S. government said Mexico had requested to buy eight MH-60R Seahawk multi-mission helicopters and that the sale would strengthen Mexico’s ability to fight criminal organizations.
The U.S. State Department approved the sale of the helicopters, which are built by Lockheed Martin, a Pentagon agency said in April.
Drug cartels have been increasingly moving shipments of cocaine from a glut of South American production via maritime routes into Mexico, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.
Mexico’s secretary of the navy did not immediately respond to a request for information.
Lopez Obrador has announced plans to shake up the strategy in the nation’s battle against drug traffickers by suggesting a negotiated peace and amnesty for some of the very people currently targeted by security forces.
His pick for the interior ministry, Olga Sanchez, has said the new government will look into decriminalizing marijuana and regulating opium for pharmaceutical use.
cutekiwi on July 12nd, 2018 at 02:04 UTC »
This doesn't seem like a Trump thing like a lot of these comments are saying. Just looks like a new person in power reprioritizing their funding. The article says nothing about US/Mexico relations, just that they're no longer purchasing the vehicles.
fifibuci on July 12nd, 2018 at 01:09 UTC »
Apparently the unit cost of the SH-60 is between 28.1 and 43.9 million dollars. I have to assume that this arrangement would also include maintenance and parts (though it's not entirely a given). The published details only mention spare engines and associated systems.
$1.36 billion for eight vehicles amounts to $170 million per vehicle. That is 4-6 times the unit cost.
The unit cost is already questionable given the age of level of production of the aircraft.
Is there any way this wasn't always a total racket?
autotldr on July 12nd, 2018 at 00:01 UTC »
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 63%. (I'm a bot)
Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: MEXICO#1 Obrador#2 Lopez#3 helicopters#4 U.S.#5