Evidence Suggests It Was An Accident

It appears -- for the moment -- to have been an accident. Mexico's Public Safety Minister Ramon Martin Huerta, Federal Preventive Police Commissioner Tomas Valencia five other passengers and a crew of two were killed Wednesday when their helicopter (type unknown) crashed into the side of a mountain during what officials described as poor weather.

"All the elements that we have at hand, all the experts that were consulted, say that there is sufficient evidence to consider that that we are dealing with an accident," presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar told a news conference, quoted by the Associated Press. "But we must wait for the results of the investigation."

But questions linger over the crash, given that at least one of the passengers had recently received a death threat from a drug dealer.

Recovery teams began bringing bodies down from the densely wooded mountainside Thursday morning. The aircraft impacted terrain at an elevation of approximately 11,200 feet some 20 miles from Mexico City.

Mexican President Vicente Fox called Huerta a good cabinet officer and a close friend. Their association predated Fox's 1995 victory in the race the governorship of Guanajuato in 1995.

One of the other passengers on board the helo, Jose Antonio Bernal, was under death threat from a drug lord to whom he refused to grant favors. That word came in a letter from the National Human Rights Commission released shortly after the aircraft went missing on Wednesday.

An official investigation is underway.

FMI: www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mx.html