[House Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE FUTURE OF U.S.-MEXICO RELATIONS
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
MAY 20, 2014
__________
Serial No. 113-167
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio BRAD SHERMAN, California
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
TED POE, Texas GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MATT SALMON, Arizona THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina KAREN BASS, California
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
MO BROOKS, Alabama DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
TOM COTTON, Arkansas ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
PAUL COOK, California JUAN VARGAS, California
GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III,
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania Massachusetts
STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas AMI BERA, California
RON DeSANTIS, Florida ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
TREY RADEL, Florida--resigned 1/27/ GRACE MENG, New York
14 deg. LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
DOUG COLLINS, Georgia TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
TED S. YOHO, Florida
LUKE MESSER, Indiana
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
WITNESSES
The Honorable Roberta S. Jacobson, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of
Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State........... 6
The Honorable William R. Brownfield, Assistant Secretary, Bureau
of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, U.S.
Department of State............................................ 16
Ms. Elizabeth Hogan, Acting Assistant Administrator, Bureau for
Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. Agency for International
Development.................................................... 24
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Roberta S. Jacobson: Prepared statement............ 9
The Honorable William R. Brownfield: Prepared statement.......... 18
Ms. Elizabeth Hogan: Prepared statement.......................... 26
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 58
Hearing minutes.................................................. 59
The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress
from the State of Florida:
Letter from Members of Congress to the Honorable Jesus Murillo
Karam, Procuraduria General De La Republica, Embassy of
Mexico, dated May 7, 2014.................................... 61
Letter from Members of Congress to the Honorable John F. Kerry,
United States Department of State, dated May 14, 2014........ 64
The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress
from the Commonwealth of Virginia: Prepared statement.......... 66
THE FUTURE OF U.S.-MEXICO RELATIONS
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TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2014
House of Representatives,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:11 a.m., in
room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Edward Royce
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Chairman Royce. This hearing will come to order. We will
ask all the members if they can take their seats at this time.
This hearing is on the future of U.S.-Mexico relations. And
today, as we look at the future of U.S.-Mexico relations, we
have witnesses that we will hear from shortly. But before we
do, I am going to make an opening statement and then the
ranking member of this committee, Mr. Eliot Engel of New York,
will make his opening statement.
Despite our strong cultural ties, our relationship with
neighboring Mexico has never received the sustained attention
from Washington that that relationship deserves.
This committee is working to change this. In December,
Chairman Salmon's Western Hemisphere Subcommittee held an
important field hearing in Arizona on facilitating trade
between the two countries. And Ranking Member Eliot Engel has
had a sustained interest in the western hemisphere,
particularly in U.S.-Mexico relations. We will all be watching
Secretary Kerry's trip to Mexico City with interest.
And this partnership is very important to both countries'
economic competitiveness and very important to the standard of
living of people in this hemisphere. As a top trading partner,
trade in goods and services with Mexico tops a $\1/2\ trillion
a year, supporting millions of American jobs. With structural
reforms underway in Mexico, this could increase significantly.
The High Level Economic Dialogue should advance border
management and trade efficiency. But most of all, a successful
conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, which
includes both countries and of course Canada--many countries in
East and South Asia, many countries along that western side of
South America--that partnership would spur economic growth
across a region that represents 40 percent of the entire global
trade.
A particular area of growing significance of course is
energy. Mexico is one of the 10 largest oil producers in the
world. The United States next year will be number one, but
Mexico is in the top ten. And it is one of the largest sources
of U.S. oil imports. Last December, Mexico announced historic
energy sector reforms, ending the 75-year state monopoly,
PEMEX. And this committee will be watching closely as Mexico
finalizes these reforms; which are expected to result in a
large and productive influx of private capital, technology and
expertise. If done right, this will allow Mexico's energy
sector to thrive; improving U.S. energy security by creating a
more reliable source of oil from our close southern neighbor.
This committee played a key role in the passage of the
U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement, paving the
way for greater energy exploration. As a Mexican official told
committee staff in Mexico City last week, Mexico wants to work
with the U.S. and Canada to help North America achieve energy
independence.
Of course the biggest threat to Mexico's success is the
ongoing threat of violence from drug cartels and from criminal
organizations tied to those cartels. U.S. efforts with Mexico
to tackle these transnational criminal organizations must be
monitored and improved. After taking a post-election pause to
consider and review Mexico's national security policy, and with
a lot of U.S. aid sitting in the pipeline, it appears that the
Pena Nieto administration will continue partnering closely with
the U.S. Both countries have an interest in reducing the
capacity of the cartels. February's joint operation between
Mexico and U.S. authorities to take down Joaquin ``El Chapo''
Guzman was a key success in this partnership.
Mexicans are hopeful that they are witnessing a new era in
their country. And under this new administration, reforms
already passed in Mexico are proving that our southern
neighbors are serious about liberalizing and modernizing
institutions. These improvements in trade and investment should
improve our relations.
And I will now turn to the ranking member for any comments
that he may have.
Mr. Engel?
Mr. Engel. Chairman Royce, I would like to begin by
thanking you for holding today's hearing. I have been focused
on the importance of U.S.-Mexico relations for many years, and
I appreciate your willingness to bring this issue before the
committee.
Once characterized by mutual mistrust, U.S. and Mexico
relations are now stronger than ever. I am pleased that the
Obama administration has prioritized our partnership with
Mexico from the very start, and I am happy to see that
Secretary Kerry is continuing our high level engagement with
his trip there tomorrow.
Today our two economies are tied more closely together than
ever before. Mexico is the second largest destination for U.S.
exports and the third largest source of imports. Six million
American jobs rely on commerce with our southern neighbor. The
impact of our economic partnership can be felt in every part of
our nation. In 2013, Mexico was the eighth largest market for
exports from my home state of New York with $2.2 billion of
goods exported from New York to Mexico.
I continue to be impressed by Mexican President, Enrique
Pena Nieto. Since taking office in December 2012, he has worked
across party lines to pass historic political and economic
reforms particularly in the country's energy sector. As a
result of Mexico's reforms, Moody's upgraded its credit rating
to investment grade in February. This makes Mexico the only
Latin American country other than Chile to obtain this rating.
I am also very pleased that the Mexican Congress recently
passed a law that will enable civilian courts to try cases
involving alleged human rights violations committed by soldiers
against civilians. Previously, these cases were tried in
military courts.
Let me also say that the new measures to protect human
rights, to protect their advocates and journalists, represent
an important step forward. This is a real challenge, and Mexico
remains a dangerous place for those working to shine a light on
abuses, corruption, and crime. I urge the Mexican Government to
speed up its implementation of these measures. I also urge the
State Department to provide direct funding for this effort to
help build a safe environment for these men and women doing
such important work.
As our witnesses know, I have been a supporter of the
Merida Initiative since its inception. But, I have also made it
clear that we have certain domestic obligations under the
Merida Initiative that demand greater U.S. attention. Firstly,
we must do much more to stop the illegal flow of firearms from
the United States to Mexico.
In 2009, the Government Accountability Office released a
report that I commissioned on this issue. It showed that 87
percent of the firearms Mexican authorities seized and traced
between Fiscal Year 2004 and Fiscal Year 2008 originated in the
United States. Today, I am sending a letter to the GAO
requesting a follow-up report reviewing U.S. efforts to combat
firearms trafficking to Mexico.
Secondly, the enormous U.S. demand for illegal drugs fuels
violence in Mexico. In 2012, there were approximately 24
million illicit drug users in the United States. While I am
pleased by the Obama administration's efforts to invest in drug
prevention and treatment programs, we must continue to do more
to stop illegal drug use in our country.
Thirdly, we must do our part to cut off funding to
transnational criminal organizations. This means enforcing our
anti-money laundering laws and cracking down on U.S. banks that
turn a blind eye to money laundering. Without taking these
steps, it will be very difficult to end the terrible violence
in Mexico that has claimed more than 70,000 lives over the past
7 years.
Finally, I would like to emphasize how important it is to
both of our countries for the House of Representatives to
swiftly pass comprehensive immigration reform. We need a new
immigration system that opens the doors of opportunity and
emphasizes human dignity. Our diversity is one of our country's
greatest strengths.
Throughout our history, immigrants have always been an
indispensable part of the fabric of our society, and we know
from the number of people reaching our shores every year that
America remains a beacon of hope and opportunity around the
world. The time to fix our system is now and we all know that
if the Senate's bill came to a vote on the House floor this
afternoon it would be on the President's desk this evening.
I would like to close by thanking our witnesses for being
here today, and for their important work in ensuring that our
U.S.-Mexico partnership remains strong. I know all the
witnesses. I am appreciative of their hard work and expertise,
and I look forward to hearing from each of them today.
So thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
important hearing, and thanks so much once again for working in
such a bipartisan way.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Engel. We want to now go for
2 minutes to Mr. Salmon, the chair of the Subcommittee on the
Western Hemisphere.
Mr. Salmon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you
and Ranking Member Engel for convening today's hearing on our
extremely important bilateral relationship with Mexico. It is
wonderful to see you again, Secretary Jacobson, Ambassador
Brownfield, and Ms. Hogan. You have all done so much to
strengthen our relationship with Mexico and the rest of the
Americas, and it has been a real pleasure working with you over
the past year.
As you know Mr. Chairman, our economic and security
partnerships with Mexico are vital. Six million U.S. jobs
depend on our trade with Mexico. That translates into 1 in 24
jobs here in the United States. Let me repeat that. One out of
every 24 jobs in the United States is related to exporting to
Mexico.
Six hundred and ninety two thousand jobs in your home
state, Mr. Chairman, in California, depend on this relationship
with Mexico. My home state of Arizona is the nation's fifth
largest exporter to Mexico, and over 111,000 Arizona jobs rely
directly or indirectly on the commercial relationship we enjoy
with Mexico.
Unfortunately, border ports of entry face significant
challenges keeping up with the growth in our two-way trade,
resulting in wait times that represent a loss of $7.2 billion a
year. As chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, I
have made trade facilitation a priority and I look forward to
hearing from our witnesses about how we can continue to address
this serious challenge.
Mexico has a growing middle class, impressive resources,
and some economists have recently projected that the Mexican
economy will be the fifth largest economy in the world by 2050.
Reforms passed within the last year to the telecommunications,
energy, and other sectors, will open up Mexico's economy even
more, building a more prosperous Mexico while opening markets
for American manufacturers and entrepreneurs. Meaningful energy
reforms recently passed will open the sector to foreign
investment that will allow Mexico to realize its production
potential, helping to make North America energy self-
sufficient.
As chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, I
pushed the administration to finally send up the Transboundary
Hydrocarbons Agreement for ratification and was pleased when we
passed it into the law late last year. This resulted in 1.5
million acres of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf being opened
for exploration and production, and opened up resources in the
Western Gap that has been off limits to both U.S. and Mexico.
We are now on a real path toward regional energy security and
independence.
Despite promising news on the economic front, security in
Mexico continues to affect both of our countries. Our security
partnership, through the Merida Initiative, has been successful
in undermining transnational criminal organizations and in
helping Mexico to reform its justice sector and build a
capacity of municipal and Federal police forces. However, I
continue to be concerned that the progress of Merida-related
programs has slowed during the Pena Nieto administration's
strategy to pivot global attention away from Mexico's real
security challenges.
I agree that there is much more to Mexico than the security
situation, but when I see that there is nearly $750 million in
the Merida pipeline, it tells me that there is still a lot of
work to be done to get our Mexico partners to reprioritize
security. It is true that Mexico continues to contribute $10 to
each $1 the U.S. contributes to the Merida Initiative, and the
capture of El Chapo certainly is another good indication of
Mexican resolve, but there is still much progress to be had.
I am eager to hear from Ambassador Brownfield on steps he
is taking to further cultivate this important security
partnership, and from Ms. Hogan on USAID's justice reform and
violence reduction programs. Improving Mexico's economic
outlook, the security situation, and the rule of law, will have
a real and direct impact on the U.S. homeland, and will enhance
our already impressive bilateral commercial relationship.
Once again, thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, for convening
what promises to be a valuable hearing on one of our most
important and productive global partnerships.
Chairman Royce. I thank the gentleman. We now go to Mr.
Sires for 2 minutes. He is the ranking member of the
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
Mr. Sires. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, and thank
you to our witnesses for being here today. The U.S. and Mexico
relationship is amongst the most critical and vibrant for our
nation's economic and public security. It is also one of the
most promising and positive relationships in our hemisphere. I
thank my friend and colleague, Chairman Salmon, for making this
relationship a central focus of our subcommittee work.
Our nations share common democratic values, similar desires
for peace and economic prosperity, as well as nearly a 2,000-
mile border. The U.S. is Mexico's largest trading partner and
largest foreign investor, while Mexico is the third largest
U.S. trading partner. In terms of security, both the U.S. and
Mexico have accepted a shared responsibility as part of the
Merida Initiative.
Congress has appropriated more than $2 billion toward the
Merida Initiative, and the administration has requested $115
million for Fiscal Year 2015. For its part, Mexico has invested
nearly $10 for every U.S. dollars deg. committed by
the U.S. Nonetheless, Mexico remains a major producer and
supplier to the U.S. of heroin, meth, and marijuana, and is the
major transit country for more than 95 percent of the cocaine
sold in the United States. Since 2006, more than 70,000 deaths
have resulted from drug related crime and violence in Mexico.
Nearly a year and a half has passed since Mexico's Enrique
Pena Nieto came into office in December 2012. Since that time,
President Pena Nieto has assured a series of ambitious reforms
with pending secondary legislation that could prove significant
to their success and have a profound impact on U.S. economic
relations and energy security.
Skepticism and concerns regarding Pena Nieto's move to
centralize security policy under ventanilla unica has now
moderated, and is reflected in the recent successful capture of
drug kingpin Joaquin ``El Chapo'' Guzman which came about with
the help of U.S. intelligence. While the escalation of drug
related violence in the region of Tamaulipas y Michoacan is
still a concern, I hope Mexico's recent announcement to
dedicate security resources to those regions will signify an
ongoing effort to continue combating drug-related criminal
threats and strengthening local police forces.
I look forward to hearing about our involvement in Mexico's
southern border security efforts, and in terms of human rights,
how we can work with Mexico to further protect journalism,
human rights advocates, and Central American migrants. I look
forward to hearing from our panelists on their assessment of
what we can expect from Secretary Kerry's upcoming visit to
Mexico and how we can improve our efforts moving forward. Thank
you.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Sires. Well, this morning we
are pleased to be joined by representatives of the Department
of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development. And
it is good to see our Madam Assistant Secretary. It is good to
see you again, Ms. Jacobson. And before becoming Assistant
Secretary of State for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere
Affairs, she formerly was the Acting Assistant Secretary for
Western Hemisphere Affairs and formerly served as director of
Mexican Affairs.
We also have Ambassador Brownfield with us. He is the
Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement Affairs. He was the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia
from 2007 to 2010, and served overseas in Venezuela, El
Salvador, Argentina, Switzerland, and in Panama as a temporary
political advisor to the U.S. Southern Command.
Ms. Hogan has 25 years of development experience in Latin
America. Elizabeth, or ``Beth Hogan'' as we know her, is the
Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for USAID's Bureau for
Latin America and the Caribbean. Previously, she served as the
Director of the Agency's Haiti Task Team, and was Director of
South American affairs.
So without objection, the witnesses' full prepared
statements will be made part of the record, and members will
have 5 calendar days to submit statements and questions and any
extraneous material that they may want to put into the record.
At this point we will begin with Ms. Jacobson. We will ask
all of the witnesses, if you could, summarize your remarks, and
then we will go to questions.
Ms. Jacobson?
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE ROBERTA S. JACOBSON, ASSISTANT
SECRETARY, BUREAU OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Ms. Jacobson. Thank you Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Engel,
and members of the committee. I want to thank you for the
opportunity to appear here today to testify on U.S.-Mexico
relations. I am really so gratified, because I think this is
the largest number of members that we have had at a hearing in
this committee on Latin America. And I also really want to
thank the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, and Chairman Salmon,
and Ranking Member Sires for their consistent and bipartisan
support of the U.S.-Mexican relationship.
Chairman Royce. It is the panel, probably, that brought
them, Assistant Secretary, so thank you.
Ms. Jacobson. Our relationship with Mexico is positive and
successful, and really it is Congress' support that is a
cornerstone of that success. I am going to speak briefly on
security and the rule of law because my colleagues will cover
that in more detail. But, I want to first provide the broader
context for a relationship that is increasingly global, and
even more important to the lives and pocketbooks of Americans.
Our high level of engagement with Mexico underscores the
importance of the relationship. President Obama has visited
Mexico five times since taking office, most recently in
February, while Vice President Biden has gone three times to
Mexico. Further reflecting the breadth of the relationship, we
have had Secretaries Johnson, Hagel, Foxx, Lew, Vilsack,
Pritzker, and Ambassador Froman, all visit Mexico over the past
year alone, to advance our efforts to support trade, streamline
regulatory cooperation, and enhance the security of our
citizens. And, as you all said, my boss, Secretary Kerry,
travels to Mexico tomorrow.
The United States and Mexico have integrated our economies
in ways we could not foresee when NAFTA went into force 20
years ago; creating good jobs and new opportunities for
citizens of both countries and increasing our competitiveness.
The U.S. and Mexican manufacturing economies build products
together for the North American and global markets.
The United States welcomes Mexico's focus on economic
policy reforms. The reforms that are being implemented should
not only help Mexico build a more productive economy and raise
living standards, but also create opportunities for Mexican
firms to improve North American competitiveness. The
administration is capitalizing on President Pena Nieto's strong
push into economic development.
The high level economic dialogue Vice President Biden
launched last year is moving forward in three areas:
Competitiveness and connectivity; economic growth,
entrepreneurship and innovation; and regional and global
leadership.
We are working in many of these areas with Canada and
Mexico, based on our leaders' commitments at the North American
Leaders Summit in March. People-to-people ties between our two
countries are vast. Ten percent of all Americans, more than 33
million, are of Mexican heritage. The Mexican American
community is a vital part of our culture, our politics, and our
values, and we are focused on tapping the great potential that
our people give us.
We have held five meetings of our Bilateral Forum for
Education, Innovation, and Research, bringing together
government, academic, and civil society members to promote
opportunity, job creation, and development of a 21st century
workforce. That forum complements the President's 100,000
Strong in the Americas initiative, to increase student
exchanges between the United States and countries of the
Western Hemisphere, including Mexico.
The President and his cabinet continue to engage with
Mexican leaders on the administration's vision for
comprehensive immigration reform that respects our tradition as
a nation of immigrants as well as a nation of laws. Immigration
reform would affect Mexico more than any other country, but
Mexican officials recognize this is a domestic issue for the
U.S. to debate and decide.
At the same time, our border is more secure than ever. We
partner with Mexico to maintain that secure border, which
facilitates the legal transit of goods and people. Mexico is
beginning to implement a strategy to better secure its own
border with Belize and Guatemala to stem illicit flows of
drugs, weapons, and people.
We maintain a close partnership with the Mexican Government
on security and rule of law issues. I will let my colleagues
describe those programs, but I want to highlight two emblematic
developments. The February arrest of Sinaloa Cartel leader
Chapo Guzman, as has been mentioned, was a clear indication,
through cooperation conducted with trust and shared enterprise,
that no individual or criminal network is immune from the reach
of the law.
Another development was the public announcement, just last
week, of a comprehensive Mexican Government plan to address
security in Tamaulipas, which borders Texas. President Pena
Nieto stated there are no easy solutions or shortcuts to reduce
violence in the short term, emphasizing long term goals such as
the rule of law and trust in judicial institutions.
While the Merida Initiative does not directly fund law
enforcement operations, it does build capacity. And we know
that when Mexicans benefit from more effective law enforcement
and judicial institutions, in areas near or far from our
border, we benefit as well. In my last visit to Mexico I
enjoyed frank conversations on human rights, security, and
improving the lives of our citizens. Mexico wants to work with
us to achieve the massive potential of our citizens and our
economies.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and all the members of this
committee for your time today, and I look forward to answering
your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Jacobson follows:]
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Chairman Royce. Thank you Assistant Secretary.
Ambassador?
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE WILLIAM R. BROWNFIELD, ASSISTANT
SECRETARY, BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS AND LAW
ENFORCEMENT AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Mr. Brownfield. May I open by thanking you for not drawing
attention during your introduction to my 3 years as U.S.
Ambassador to Venezuela, a period and a performance which
richly merits not being remembered for centuries and centuries
to come.
Chairman Royce. Well, I referenced it but I didn't give the
time frame.
Mr. Brownfield. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Engel, members of the
committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you
today to discuss one of our most important relationships in the
entire world. Assistant Secretary Jacobson has just described
the larger strategic issues and I will report on the security
relationship.
With the arrival of the Pena Nieto administration in
December 2012, both governments took the opportunity to review
our security cooperation. We had much to review. Since 2008, we
have delivered $1.2 billion to support that cooperation, and
the Government of Mexico has delivered many times that amount.
Our support has provided training and equipment to 8,500
justice sector officials and 22,000 police. Civic education
programs have reached more than 700,000 Mexican students, and
secure, Federal prison systems have grown from five to 14. The
Mexican Government has taken down more than 70 major drug
traffickers, and our contribution of $112 million in border
detection equipment has resulted in almost $3.8 billion in
seized illicit goods.
Our joint review started from a very strong base. Early
last year, the two governments agreed to maintain four pillars
to guide our security cooperation: Disrupting organized crime,
institution building, creating a modern border and building
strong communities.
The Government of Mexico released its own 10-point national
security strategy last August, giving greater priority to crime
prevention, rule of law, and community development. We agreed
with these priorities. For our part, we prioritized training
over equipment and state-level engagement as well as Federal-
level engagement.
The Mexican Government agreed with these U.S. priorities.
Since January of this year, our two Governments have approved
78 new projects valued at more than $430 million. The Mexican
Government focused these projects on justice sector reform,
Mexico's southern border, and state-level law enforcement.
We will work with the Mexican Attorney General's office to
train prosecutors in the new accusatory justice system, and
empower law enforcers to fight financial crime. We will provide
communications equipment and training for customs, immigration,
border, and narcotics officials along Mexico's southern border,
through which most illicit product and migrants pass on their
way to the United States. And we will increase training and
support for state police academies to allow them to expand
their reach to state police throughout Mexico.
Mr. Chairman, I do not need to explain to this committee
the importance of this security relationship. I am sometimes
asked when we will see concrete results on the ground from this
investment. The question is easily answered. First, I note our
lesson from Colombia. It takes decades to create security
threats, and it takes time to resolve them.
But second, there are visible results on the ground. The
arrest of Joaquin ``El Chapo'' Guzman last February, was the
most important law enforcement operation since the Colombian
takedown of Pablo Escobar in 1993. In the past 3 years, the
homicide rate in the city of Juarez, 300 feet across the river
from El Paso, has dropped as much as 83 percent. U.S.
consumption of cocaine and methamphetamines, most of them
transhipped through Mexico, has dropped nearly 50 percent since
2007. And U.S. border officials report that at some crossings
Mexican nationals now constitute a minority of those detained
for illegal entry.
Members of the committee, this Congress was bold and
ambitious when it decided in 2008 to support the Merida
Initiative. We are not at the goal line yet, but we have
crossed the 50. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions
and your guidance.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Brownfield follows:]
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Chairman Royce. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF MS. ELIZABETH HOGAN, ACTING ASSISTANT
ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, U.S.
AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Ms. Hogan. Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, and
members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to
discuss USAID's contributions to the Merida Initiative with you
today.
Mr. Chairman, as underscored in our new mission statement,
USAID is partnering to end extreme poverty and promote
resilient democratic societies. USAID's work with our partners
in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the region's impressive
progress over the past several decades, has enabled USAID to
shift our development approach from providing direct assistance
toward strengthening countries' capacity to provide for their
own people.
In Mexico, USAID's collaboration with the Government of
Mexico on rule of law and citizen security has three goals: To
improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system,
strengthen the capacities of communities to reduce crime and
violence, and promote the protection of human rights. To
achieve these goals, we operate in a genuine partnership with
our Mexican counterparts. These goals are a matter of national
security for the United States as well as an economic and
political imperative.
Six years ago, Mexico began a transition from the written,
inquisitorial criminal justice system to the most transparent,
oral adversarial system. USAID's support to that transition at
the national level and in 12 of the 32 Mexican states ranges
from helping to develop legislation to training judges,
prosecutors, public defenders, and investigative police.
We are also helping the Mexican Government create and
strengthen institutions essential to the reform; such as,
building the capacity of internal training units, victims
assistance centers, and pretrial service units. To prepare the
next generation of lawyers and judges, we are assisting
Mexico's bar associations, promoting professional standards and
law schools, in curriculum reform and teacher training.
The transition to a new criminal justice system is already
producing positive results. Evaluations of the states that have
advanced the reforms found a significant decrease in acquittal
rates, a marked decrease in the length of pretrial detentions,
longer sentences assigned for serious crimes, reduced case
backlogs, and better assistance for victims.
To support the Mexican Government's crime reduction
efforts, we are piloting innovative prevention approaches in
three of the border cities most affected by violence and
criminal activity. In Ciudad Juarez, Monterrey, and Tijuana, we
are developing new models for safe urban spaces, providing life
and job skills for at-risk youth, increasing educational
opportunities, and empowering communities to address the root
causes of crime and violence. We will help the Mexican
Government build on and replicate the most successful of these
interventions.
One of the keys to the success of our Merida activities has
been the extent to which the private sector has contributed and
partnered with us. To raise additional resources and ensure job
training provides the skills that employers need, we have
partnered with companies like Cisco, Intel, Prudential, and
CEMEX, to name a few, to train youth from tough neighborhoods
for jobs in the growing fields of technology and construction.
We are also helping to spur economic activity in poor
communities across Mexico by opening up affordable financing
via the Development Credit Authority. A 2013 partnership
between USAID, the Mexican financial institution, Velfin, and
Credit Suisse has unlocked $60 million in private capital for
local job creators, small- and medium-sized businesses.
To truly ensure the sustainability of our efforts, we are
increasingly supporting local organizations to reduce crime and
violence; such as the Chihuahuan Business Foundation and
Citizens Committed to Peace who are in Ciudad Juarez,
Monterrey, and Tijuana. To date, they have supported over
17,000 at-risk Mexican youth. Our efforts to advance prevention
by providing viable alternatives to Mexican youth are already
bearing fruit. One of our employability programs engaged 8,900
at-risk youth in employment and education activities, and
approximately 70 percent of the participants have re-enrolled
in school or gone on to find gainful employment.
Through the Merida Initiative, USAID is helping the Mexican
Government to protect journalists and human right defenders who
expose crime and corruption. Together, we are applying the
lessons learned from a decade of investments in Colombia to
enhance similar protection mechanisms in Mexico. We train
journalists and human rights professionals on the practices,
tools, and technologies they need to protect themselves and
their work.
Mr. Chairman, we are encouraged by many of the steps that
Mexico has taken to reduce crime and violence. But we also
recognize that defeating the powerful cartels and the violence
that they have spawned will take time. We are also encouraged
by the progress we have seen thus far through our partnership
with the Mexican Government, private sector, and civil society.
Their success will make both our countries safer and more
prosperous. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hogan follows:]
----------
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Ms. Hogan.
Let me ask a question of the Ambassador, and it relates to
the Pena administration's review on security issues. They took
a step back, took a sort of a new approach. We are over a year
into the administration there. How do we assess the cooperation
between the U.S. and Mexico on that?
And the other aspect of that, as I understand the State
Department works with the California Attorney General's office
to help provide oral advocacy training to the prosecutors in
Mexico and that our L.A. County Sheriff's office hosts a study
tour for Mexico city police.
And I was going to ask also how these state-level exchanges
help improve cross-border relationships at the state level and
in turn help improve the capacity in Mexico on transnational
criminal investigations. But, I also wondered about the
effectiveness of these programs and thought you might have some
comment on that.
Mr. Brownfield. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I just might. May
I start with your first question, and that is the state of
cooperation between the United States and Mexican Governments.
You are correct as always, at the start of this now not-so-new
government of President Pena Nieto as of the 1st of December
2012, there was a period where both governments, logically and
understandably, said let us review what is the nature of the
cooperation that we have today. I would suggest to you that
never in the history of mankind has a government come to
office, a new administration, saying we will continue each and
every program and policy of our predecessors.
This process took some time. Much of the year 2013 was
dedicated to it. We were not sitting on our hands during this
time. Programs that had already begun were continued through
that year, but we did in fact not initiate a great many new
programs. We have reached an agreement on how we will make
these decisions in the future.
We have set up our own team based out of our Embassy in
Mexico City, and the Government of Mexico has established their
representatives in the Secretariat or the Department of
Gobernacion, like their presidency ministry, and their foreign
ministry. They are making decisions. As I mentioned in my
statement, we have agreements on 78 new projects and nearly
$438 million worth of projects that will proceed. The message
that I have for you is that we are now moving ahead at a right
smart pace in terms of new programs and projects.
Chairman Royce. And one of these would be the prosecutorial
training by the Attorney General's office in California?
Mr. Brownfield. It would fall in that category, Mr.
Chairman. And if you will allow me to pander ever so briefly,
and I promise to stop. Since you have opened that door I would
mention as well, proudly, that we have also partnered with a
number of other state and local institutions in the United
States of America for Mexico programs including: The Chicago
Police Department, Harris County Sheriffs, Houston Police
Department, State of Maryland Corrections, Los Angeles
Sheriff's Department, as you mentioned, Portland Police
Department, Washington State Justice Commission, El Paso
Sheriff's Department, Albuquerque Police Department, New Mexico
State Police, California Corrections Department, Colorado
Corrections, Maryland Corrections, New Mexico Corrections, and
a group called the Conference of Western Attorneys General,
which loops in about two-thirds of the attorneys general of the
United States of America including California.
Chairman Royce. All this focus on capacity building and you
deem this to be effective? Very good.
Mr. Brownfield. In each case obviously focused on their
area of expertise.
Chairman Royce. Well, we appreciate that.
I wanted to go to Assistant Secretary Jacobson with a
question about the shift in strategy. For 75 years you had a
parastatal there, PEMEX, and now that state-owned monopoly is
changing. And I was going to ask you about the energy sector
there and the changes you might expect following the
implementation of those major reforms that are underway. And
maybe ask also if you thought we would see significant foreign
investment, as well as U.S. investment in the energy industry
as a result of the reforms.
Ms. Jacobson. So I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think one of
the things that has been so exciting about the reforms, and the
energy reform obviously has garnered the most attention, are
opportunities for partnership and investment. Obviously PEMEX
will remain a state-owned entity and that has been clear
throughout the reform, and the implementing legislation and the
secondary legislation is not yet complete. So it is not
entirely clear how things will play out.
But, what we hear from U.S. companies of all types, energy
firms and firms that would support energy contracts, et cetera,
is that they are very, very interested in the market and they
are waiting for the reforms to be complete. They are obviously
very excited about this, very positive about the possibility of
partnering with Mexican companies and PEMEX itself and what
possibilities there might be for them to be involved.
There are also, obviously outside of the oil industry,
partnerships in renewable energy, other forms of energy with
U.S. companies for quite awhile. But in the oil industry, there
are possibilities that didn't exist before.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Assistant Secretary. I will go
now to Mr. Eliot Engel of New York.
Mr. Engel. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. As
the witnesses know, I was an early and strong supporter of the
Merida Initiative, and since 2008 Congress has appropriated
over $2 billion in assistance to Mexico through that
initiative. As large military hardware has been delivered and
our focus turns toward institution building and justice reform,
the President's budget requests have decreased for Merida
funding.
So I would like to ask each of our witnesses to give us a
sense of what you think Merida Initiative assistance should
look like, both in terms of the amounts and types of funding
over the next 5 to 10 years, say. I want to obviously ensure
that Mexico receives the funding it needs in this tight budget
atmosphere. So why don't we start with you, Ms. Jacobson?
Ms. Jacobson. Thank you, Mr. Engel. I think that obviously
as you have seen from our requests, the figures have gone down
over the last couple of years. This was to some extent, I
think, our expectation along with the Mexicans that those
numbers would go down. Number one, the Mexicans are able to
obviously afford a great deal on their own, but number two, as
we have said and you implied in your question, equipment is
more expensive than training, which is the area that we are in
most now.
I can't recall exactly at this moment the precise total
figure that we are talking about, whether we are somewhere
between $100 million and $200 million of assistance at this
point. I expect that figure to be in that neighborhood and
trending downward, but slowly, hopefully, over the next few
years.
There is still an enormous amount to do, especially as
Ambassador Brownfield has outlined, as we move into cooperating
with the Mexican Government on state efforts. Because as we
know, so much of the law enforcement and the justice efforts
are at the state level, not just at the Federal level, to fight
these kinds of crime.
But I also think it is critically important as Beth pointed
out, I think the real focus has to be on the communities
themselves and the justice sector. This is an administration
that came in very focused on completing judicial reform. That
is going to make a huge difference on the human rights
situation and on convicting people and making sure that you are
only focused on the most important cases and that other cases
are not always coming to trial. Things are more transparent,
victims' rights are respected. So I think that is really where
a lot of the focus needs to be maintained in years ahead.
Mr. Engel. Anybody else? Ambassador?
Mr. Brownfield. May I quickly, Mr. Engel, and suggest to
you, the President's request for Fiscal Year 2015 for
International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement was $18
million. I of course support the President's request. I do note
that that is down from nearly $148 million the year before.
I think there are two reasons for this. One, as Assistant
Secretary Jacobson has just laid out, you have to expect a
program will start high and then you, the Congress, will hold
us to a standard to bring it down to a sustainable level in the
richness and fullness of time.
And second, as I suggested in my opening statement, we were
working through a period of adjustment with the new government,
and during that time we were not spending down at the rate that
we had in previous years. It would be my hope, Congressman,
that our request in the year ahead would be at a somewhat
higher level.
Mr. Engel. Ms. Hogan?
Ms. Hogan. I would just underscore a point I made in my
testimony, in that, we have just begun to tap the enormous
potential of the private sector to invest in some of these
programs, and I think that is a win-win situation. By investing
in workforce development, they are getting better employees and
we are staving off the opportunity for at-risk youth to move
into illicit economic activity.
There is much more that we can do. We know there is a great
amount of liquidity in the banks and it is not reaching small-
and medium-sized businesses. Through our Development Credit
Authority, we are poised to do more of that kind of work and
unleash that potential, and the private sector has to bring
more to bear on solving these problems going forward.
Mr. Engel. Thank you. As I mentioned in my opening
statement, I believe that U.S. firearms fuel drug violence in
Mexico. Since 2009, I have pushed for full enforcement of the
existing U.S. ban on imported firearms, which are not for
sporting purposes. This was enacted in the 1968 Gun Control
Act. Frankly, I have been a bit frustrated that the
administration's not enforcing this or enacting this. This is
legislation that is already on the books. It was fulfilled
under both the administrations of President George H.W. Bush
and President Clinton. It was stopped by President George W.
Bush, and has not resumed under President Obama, and it has
been very frustrating.
I know we were having some discussions and hopefully we are
moving things along in the right direction. But to me it is
very frustrating, that although it is on the books and we know
if utilized will stop the violence, or not stop it but curtail
it, and that these arms that illegally go to Mexico are fueling
it, and we are just sitting there and watching it happen when
we have laws on the books that, in my opinion, could prevent
it.
In Mexico, we have used Merida Initiative assistance to
install Spanish language eTrace to help trace recovered
firearms, and let me ask Ambassador Brownfield about it. How
effective has Spanish language eTrace been? How is the
cooperation, your cooperation with your Mexican counterparts in
Spanish eTrace? And based on the information you have obtained
from eTrace, do you know where most firearms recovered in
Mexico come from?
Mr. Brownfield. Thank you, Congressman. The eTrace is, in
fact, a very important part of our security and law enforcement
cooperation with Mexico and the Mexican Government under the
Merida Initiative. I would describe our experience with eTrace
as, initially some concern or speculation on the part of the
Mexican Government, to what this really was, and whether this
was a substitute for us enforcing aggressively our own firearms
licensing and export controls and laws. And then considerable
enthusiasm for eTrace as it was introduced into the Mexican law
enforcement community.
It then dropped in terms of the number of traces called for
in the course of the year 2013. It is now rising once again. I
attribute that to, first, the same adjustment of one
administration to another administration, and second, a
realization by the new team that this is, in fact, a valuable
tool. I am optimistic about it. I think this is a very good
investment. It is not just an investment of the United States
and Mexico. As you presumably know, we are also having
excellent success with eTrace in the Caribbean and in Central
America.
Mr. Engel. I think my time is over. But I am wondering,
Ambassador, if you could answer the last question I said, which
on the information you have obtained from eTrace, do we know
where most firearms recovered in Mexico come from?
Mr. Brownfield. Sorry. We know where they come from in
terms of those which have been processed through eTrace. I
actually can't give you figures right here and now, but I will
be happy to give them to you. Those that have actually been
processed through the eTrace system will, in fact, give us a
statistical basis to say where their point of origin was.
Mr. Engel. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Royce. Thank you.
Mr. Rohrabacher?
Mr. Rohrabacher. I thought you were going to go first, Mr.
Chairman. Thank you very much. First and foremost, let us be
very grateful that we have such a wonderful people that live to
our south. And I am a Californian. We are very proud of the
heritage that we share with our brothers and sisters to the
south. And America could have peoples who are, or other
neighbors that we didn't like, but I will tell you this much,
the people of Mexico are wonderful people. I have spent a lot
of time with them as a young person and as I got older as well.
Being a surfer, I spent a lot of time with Mexican surfers down
in Baja.
So let us just start with that we should be grateful as a
country for having such wonderful neighbors as we have. Having
wonderful neighbors and having good friends doesn't mean that
there aren't problems and you have to work at those problems to
make sure you maintain a good relationship. I am very happy to
hear testimony today that indicates that relationship and that
cooperation is actually on the upswing, and I hope to be as
supportive as I can of that effort.
I would like to talk to something that you have touched on
and ask you what is drug use in Mexico like? Is there a problem
with internal drug use in Mexico?
Mr. Brownfield. I don't see anyone else grabbing for the
microphone, Congressman, so I will take a crack at that. May I
offer one lesson of history, and that is, there is no such
thing as a country that serves solely as a transit country in
the drug trafficking pipeline, and the reason is very, very
simple. Over the last 30 or 40 years the trafficking
organizations pay their network in product. They do not pay
$50,000 to a corrupted customs official. They provide a half
kilo of cocaine or of heroin and that product then must be
marketed locally, and in that way a transit nation becomes a
consumer nation.
Mexico is, in fact, confronting its own drug problem and
crisis. It involves methamphetamines, cocaine, and heroin. A
big part of our program under the Merida Initiative with the
Government of Mexico is drug demand reduction in terms of
supporting an education program in schools and among youth,
treatment and rehabilitation centers, particularly in cities
that are vulnerable to social unrest and poverty.
Mr. Rohrabacher. Let me ask you this. Do they imprison drug
users in Mexico?
Mr. Brownfield. I will have to double-check in terms of the
specific state of Federal Mexican law. There are of course 32
states in Mexico, as in the United States, and each state has
its own legal code. What I do not know at this point is whether
mere possession or consumption is a criminal offense.
Mr. Rohrabacher. Let us note that our drug war has been a
total failure in the United States. We have massive drug use
after how many years And that drug use in the United States is
one of the things that has had a negative impact on our
neighbor, on our good neighbors who we like. And I think that
there is a tendency among too many Americans to blame Mexico
for our problem of consumption when actually it is the other
way around.
And I have talked with former President Vicente Fox in
Mexico, and he is suggesting that perhaps we should try a
revolutionary approach which is: Bringing down the price of
drugs by legalizing it and by treating those people who use
drugs as people who need our help rather than people who need
to be imprisoned.
Mr. Brownfield. I agree with you, Congressman, that drugs
in the United States and everywhere else in the world is a
public health issue, that it is not just a criminal justice
issue.
Mr. Rohrabacher. So let me just say this. The best thing
that we could do for Mexico would be to lower the price of
drugs so the cartels then wouldn't have so much income to
create a power dynamic in Mexico that is negative to that
country. Isn't that correct?
Mr. Brownfield. I would want to be very careful not to
support a policy or a strategy whose effect would be to
increase the number of users and consumers of dangerous
products.
Mr. Rohrabacher. Agreed.
Mr. Brownfield. I understand what you are saying. My only
response is the devil is in the details. We have to make sure
that as we proceed, we are not producing a worse outcome than
we----
Mr. Rohrabacher. Right. With a note on that, and I
understand that argument. But I would just suggest that I
haven't seen a lot of evidence that indicates that legalization
of drugs and treating it as a personal problem that some would
have, rather than a criminal problem, I haven't seen where that
would increase the use of drugs in our society or in Mexico.
I have come to the conclusion that people can get a hold of
drugs in our society no matter what. There is nothing stopping
them. And that legalizing it wouldn't mean more people would be
using it. It is just that the drug cartels would be cut totally
out of the equation and thus helping Mexico. With that thought,
thank you very much.
Chairman Royce. We go now to Mr. Gregory Meeks of New York.
Mr. Meeks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank all
three of our diplomats that are sitting at the table. Thank you
for your great representation of our country and your deep
concern and commitment to the western hemisphere, you truly are
examples of fine diplomats that make the United States, and
serve the United States in a very, very important capacity.
Let me start with Assistant Secretary Jacobson. And surely
we have had a long relationship with Mexico, and we have had
one starting with NAFTA. We moved on and now even individuals
are talking about how they are tied in with TPP. That is just
the economics of the relationship between the United States and
Mexico. I am sure that you have seen this relationship evolve,
and I was wondering if you would give us some indication of how
you see it evolving and how you would characterize it now.
Ms. Jacobson. Thank you, Congressman. I think one of the
things that is so remarkable is, if you look at the growth in
the 20 years, the growth in the economic relationship over 20
years, it is a lot of statistics. And we did hear, I think it
was in certainly Chairman Royce and Chairman Salmon's remarks,
the number of jobs that this tripling and quadrupling in trade
has generated in the United States.
But the other thing that we have seen in the growth of
trade since NAFTA and since the growth in our economies'
connection and connectivity, as we called it in the North
American Leaders Summit, is the growth in manufacturing
industries that are now fully integrated. If you look at the
one that is always used, automobile production, where cars are
really not American cars, they are North American cars.
Produced in Canada, in the United States, and in Mexico. But
that is true in other industries as well. It is true in the
aircraft industries, and it is increasingly true in many
manufacturing sectors.
So I think there is a lot of ways in which we have seen
that North America, with all of its resources, whether they are
natural or human, can be a platform for enormous economic
competitiveness, and that working together is the way that we
can get there. It is one of the reasons we have spent so much
of our time in this administration focusing on three areas, I
think, that are linked to the importance of that economic
competitiveness, education, especially for the U.S. and Mexico,
energy, which is crucial to that economic competitiveness, and
then the Vice President's leadership in the high level economic
dialogue.
Mr. Meeks. Speaking of that, I know that upon his
inauguration President Nieto announced an unprecedented reform
agenda that he has largely been able to keep intact. And how
will the recently approved fiscal, labor, education, and energy
reforms impact the United States-Mexico economic relationship,
and how do you think that these reforms affect U.S. investments
in Mexico?
Ms. Jacobson. Well, one of the things that I think is so
critical is these are reforms that have been urged by
economists for 20 years. They are very much the structural
reforms that many people said were critically necessary for
Mexico's economy to prosper along with the free trade
agreement. Economists have always told us that free trade
agreements alone don't bring about economic prosperity. They
require structural changes in an economy like Mexico's. And so
these reforms, in many ways, or some forms of changes were
needed, I think, to make Mexico more competitive and to improve
its economy.
So they really do bode very, very well for the Mexican
economy, but they also bode well in terms of their openness for
investment and for greater trade, even greater than we have
seen in the last 20 years. You also see Mexico as part of TPP
and as a part of the Pacific Alliance. The nations of Latin
America, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, integrating and working
to promote greater openness in their economies, really trying
to encourage greater investment from overseas and from all over
the world, whether it is the United States or elsewhere. So I
think the opportunities have really expanded even more than
they have been in the last few years.
Mr. Meeks. Thank you. Let me go to Ambassador Brownfield
real quick. I know you have been very involved when you were
the Ambassador in Colombia. Can you tell us real quickly, what
has Colombia's role been in providing training for Mexican
security forces, and what specific areas would it be helpful
for the Colombian Government to further train or assist Mexican
security forces?
Mr. Brownfield. Thanks, Congressman. As you know, because
among other reasons you and I have actually talked about it,
the Colombian Government has, in fact, provided support and
training, exported some of its police and law enforcement
capability broadly throughout the region, most heavily in
Central America, and to a lesser extent in the Caribbean.
In Mexico, there has been a great deal of communication and
dialogue between them. The Colombian Government has provided a
great deal of aviation training in terms of helicopter pilot
training and maintenance and support, mechanics training, if
you will, for the aviation component of Mexican law
enforcement. That said, the amount of direct training
engagement between Mexico and Colombia is less than you will
find between Colombia and other parts of Central America and
the Caribbean.
Chairman Royce. Mike McCaul of Texas.
Mr. McCaul. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the
witnesses for being here today, particularly the Ambassador,
Secretary Jacobson, you are truly fine public servants and I
appreciate your hard work.
With respect to Mexico and the Western Hemisphere, as you
know I chair the U.S.-Mexico IPG, I must say in Mexico City,
maybe 6 months ago, we had a very productive meeting with the
Mexican Congress, particularly on PEMEX reform. I have to say,
I have been very optimistic about this new administration with
respect to the direction they are taking on energy. And what
was amazing to me was that all three parties agreed. The PRI,
the PAN, the PRD, which at this place it is hard to agree on
anything on either side of the aisle. But, to have all three
parties come together saying this needs to be done, I think,
was really remarkable.
I think Mexico has a unique opportunity to open up its
energy resources, both offshore and with the Eagle Ford Shale,
and then working with the United States to have a true alliance
on energy independence. I just returned from the Middle East,
from Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. We have a great dependence on
energy with the Middle East. I think this is a great way for
the United States and Mexico to work together on energy
independence.
My question to the secretary would be, and my understanding
is the constitutional amendment has passed on these reforms,
but that it is still awaiting, I guess, ratification, for lack
of a better word, by the Mexican Congress, which would take
place possibly in the June time frame. Can you give us an
update on that?
Ms. Jacobson. As far as I understand, Congressman,
ratification of the constitutional changes has taken place. But
now the implementing or secondary legislation has to be passed,
and it is possible that that will be done in the June time
frame. Yes.
Mr. McCaul. Do we feel optimistic that that will get done?
Ms. Jacobson. I think we are encouraged. Certainly there
have been lots of discussions and debates and there is likely
to be some opposition, as is always the case in these things,
but it seems that there is a great deal of support.
Mr. McCaul. And I understand also the agreement, when I
talk to energy companies in the United States, for them it is
very important to have production sharing as opposed to profit
sharing, as I understand it. And that would be the key to a
good marriage here on this issue. Is it your understanding that
they would lean more toward the production sharing?
Ms. Jacobson. Congressman, I would have to check and see
exactly where the legislation stands right now. I think that
may be the case, but I don't want to misspeak so I will check
that to be sure.
Mr. McCaul. We have been very careful not to meddle in
their affairs. At this point in time, I think it is good for us
to sit back and watch what happens.
Ms. Jacobson. Good for Mexicans to make this Mexican
decision.
Mr. McCaul. Precisely.
Ms. Jacobson. Indeed.
Mr. McCaul. Lastly, I also want to applaud the new
administration. There was some skepticism on whether they were
intent on going after drug cartel organizations. And not too
long into the new administration we had the head of Los Zetas
taken down and then recently Chapo Guzman, which is a historic
achievement against the drug cartels.
I talked to Ambassador Medina-Mora about this capture on
the issue of extradition. He told me that he was open to the
idea but that a request had not been made by the
administration. Can you give me the, and I know DOJ is involved
with this as well, but can you give me an update on the status
of any extradition request?
Mr. Brownfield. Oh, she turned that one over to me,
Congressman.
Mr. McCaul. And lucky you.
Mr. Brownfield. For which I am of course eternally
grateful. Members of the committee, I believe this is known to
everyone on this committee and I presume to every citizen of
the United States and Mexico, there are, in fact, indictments
against Mr. Joaquin Guzman in the United States of America for
Federal charges related to drug trafficking offenses. There are
also obviously charges and indictments pending against him in
the Mexican legal system.
I believe what Ambassador Medina-Mora has said to you is
quite consistent with what he has said to us. We have two legal
systems which have expressed interest in taking jurisdiction
over this particular matter. It will eventually be determined
by the Mexican judicial system in terms of whether they will
try him there or they will support an eventual extradition of
him to the United States, and at the end of the day that
decision will play out in its own time.
Mr. McCaul. Okay. I thank you for that answer. I see my
time has expired.
Chairman Royce. Mr. Sires?
Mr. Sires. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Tomorrow Secretary
Kerry is going to Mexico. I am happy to see that there is not
just the Middle East, that we have a whole other part of the
world that we need to focus on. What can we expect from this
trip? Is there going to be any announcements? Anything you can
give us a heads-up on before the trip?
Ms. Jacobson. Sure. I don't want to break too much news
ahead of his trip, but I think it is not a secret that he is
going to focus, that the trip is relatively brief but it will
focus on three areas that I think are among those that I have
talked about today. He will meet with his counterpart, the
foreign secretary, as well as the education secretary, and he
will have Frances Cordova from the National Science Foundation
with him to talk about our Bilateral Forum on Education,
Innovation, and Research.
So this will be kind of a continuation and a launching of
our action plan on bilateral education. This has been a real
key part of our relationship, a desire to do more in higher
education, to do more in research efforts together. That is why
the National Science Foundation is involved. He is also going
to attend an event in which they are going to talk about clean
energy and clean technologies. So a lot of this will focus on
the economic and education agenda. But obviously, he is also
going to be talking with his counterpart and with President
Pena Nieto about problems in the world that we can work on
together, and in the region.
Mr. Sires. Do you anticipate discussion on the security of
the southern border? The border with Guatemala and Belize? I
mean that is becoming a real dangerous point. And what else can
we do to assist Mexico at this part of the Mexican border?
Ms. Jacobson. I am actually going to turn it over to
Ambassador Brownfield in a moment, but I certainly expect that
will be part of the conversations. But one of the things that
we have decided as an interagency group is also that the White
House and the deputy Homeland Security advisor, Rand Beers,
will be talking are continuing his conversations with the
Mexicans on the citizen security issue. Ambassador Brownfield
has supported those efforts, including discussions on the
southern border of Mexico.
Mr. Brownfield. Very briefly, Congressman. There is already
a bilateral agreement. This is an important project for both
governments, the United States and the Mexican Governments. It
is already an area where we have agreed on several specific
projects that total nearly $11 million in terms of assistance
and equipment that would support the ability of the Mexican
Government to link together their drugs, customs, border, and
police personnel on their border with Guatemala and Belize.
We want to do it carefully because unlike the U.S.-Mexico
border, where we obviously have a right to speak and to speak
publicly about our interests, the border between Mexico and
Guatemala obviously is not something on which we have an
automatic right to an opinion.
We realize however, first, that the southern border of
Mexico is about one-tenth the length of their northern border
and therefore it is a much easier challenge to manage. And
second, the overwhelming majority of the bad stuff that starts
in South America and eventually enters the United States
crosses that southern border before it crosses the border with
the United States. High priority, we are in agreement, and we
are committed to work with them on it.
Mr. Sires. It is not just Guatemala. Belize is also a
transit point for drugs coming into this country.
Mr. Brownfield. You are exactly right, and I was speaking
in shorthand for which I should apologize. But you are
absolutely correct. And in some ways it is even more dangerous,
because Belize, being a far less populous country, does not
necessarily have the resources to throw at the border issues as
does Guatemala.
Mr. Sires. Thank you very much, Chairman.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Sires. We now go to Matt
Salmon of Arizona.
Mr. Salmon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to direct
my first question toward Secretary Jacobson. As we look for
ways to improve management of our shared border in an effort to
shorten those wait times at our ports of entry, I am pleased
with some of the agreements we have reached with the Government
of Mexico to achieve border efficiency; particularly given the
loss of billions of dollars in economic opportunity that occurs
each year due to wait times on the border.
One ongoing discussion has been the expansion of pre-
clearance zones on either side of our borders, starting with a
few pilot programs. Assistant Secretary Jacobson, can you give
us a sense of how these discussions and the pilots are
progressing, particularly given the sensitivity on the Mexican
side on the topic of our CBP agents carrying their weapons
within the pre-clearance zones?
Also, hand-in-hand with the commercial side of the border
management is border security. Again, our diplomats in Mexico
City have made tremendous progress in reaching agreements to
improve our partnership in these efforts, in particular the
mirrored patrols between U.S. Border Patrol and Mexican Federal
police along the busiest smuggling corridors. However, it is my
understanding that there have been only around 150 Mexican
officers deployed, not nearly enough. Has there been any
progress in getting the Mexican Government to commit more
resources to this effort?
Ms. Jacobson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And on the
pre-clearance issue, I know that we have really been in pretty
intense conversations with our Mexican counterparts, both sides
really wanting to try and reach toward an agreement on that and
I believe that some progress is being made there. Let me get
the specifics of where we are on that and try and get back to
you.
I know how important this is, not only to you and your
state because that is where we would try and do our pilot, but
really to the border as a whole and to the country. We want to
try and figure out whether this model can work. It would be so
productive, make things so much easier, and then hopefully be
able to be expanded. This is something that we have been
working on for awhile and we would really like to try and break
the log jam. So let me get you more detail on where we are. It
is something we really will continue to try and work towards.
On the issue of the border violence and the efforts to
reduce border violence and to work on both sides of the border,
clearly we work best at that issue when we are working on both
sides, when we are communicating across the border. And the
conversations that we have had with our Mexican counterparts
since we restarted our dialogue with the new government, if you
will, with the Pena Nieto government last fall, I think, have
really improved our communications and have made it easier to
cooperate across the border.
We continue to work with them to try and get more Mexican
officials on the other side, especially to move to hot spots as
we get information intelligence on where danger may be, and we
will continue to have those conversations.
Mr. Salmon. Thank you. Ambassador Brownfield, I want to
congratulate you and your colleagues at our Embassy and
consulates in Mexico for what you have achieved in
strengthening the security partnership with Mexico through the
Merida Initiative. Despite some setbacks and reorganization
following the election of President Pena Nieto, progress is
being made. However, there remains a substantial pipeline, as
you know, so I would like to know from you where the sticking
points are and if we can expect to see more steady progress.
And then, I would like to get a sense from you about
whether the Government of Mexico has prioritized or will
prioritize its security efforts in the state of Tamaulipas. The
violence there, as you know, is happening right along the U.S.
border near Brownsville and McAllen, Texas, and I know there
have been several opportunities for us to ask questions of our
counterparts in Mexico. And I think that while they want to
improve the security, they kind of throw up their hands in some
of these areas like this, and I just don't think we can do
that.
Mr. Brownfield. Thanks, Congressman. First, on the pipeline
issue. And the pipeline, ladies and gentlemen, is what we in
the program management business call those funds which have not
been either obligated or subobligated and expended, spent down.
And you are correct, Congressman, as always. The pipeline
for Mexico, at least in terms of those funds for which I am
responsible, the INCLE funds, had reached nearly $900 million.
The reason for it is simply stated. One, the 2013 money and the
2014 money has not yet been obligated due to the speed with
which things move through. When that is completed, about $350
million will then be obligated.
Second, as I mentioned in my presentation, there was a
period when new programs were not being launched. We have moved
beyond that period. I repeat. We have reached an agreement on
$438 million worth of 78 new programs. I would expect that to
bring this pipeline down by more than 50 percent in and of
itself.
Finally, we do have a few holds. They constitute about $100
million. No one on this side of the Capitol is responsible for
them, but that is money that cannot be spent until the reasons
for the hold have been lifted. I am optimistic. The signal that
I want to send to you, Congressman, is I am optimistic that
pipeline delays are not going to be a longstanding issue that
you will have to raise with me.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Chairman Salmon. Thank you,
Ambassador. We go now to Mr. Juan Vargas of California.
Mr. Vargas. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for the
meeting, and thank you to the witnesses. There are three issues
that I would like to talk about. The first one is an active
U.S. Marine reservist. His name is Andrew Tahmooressi. Also,
the border efficiencies that we just spoke of, and lastly, the
North American Development Bank.
I live in San Diego, about 14\1/2\ miles from the border,
and love living there, and love living next to Mexico. It has
been a great place to live. However, inadvertently every so
often, a Marine or another person will go across the border and
have weapons on him. And as we have been hearing today, they
are quite illegal in Mexico.
This poor gentleman, Andrew Tahmooressi, did that. He
crossed the border. He had three weapons on him. He is a
reservist. He served two tours of duty in Afghanistan. He
served our country very honorably, and unfortunately he is now
in prison in Mexico for about a month. Everyone understands
that he is not a drug trafficker. He is not in any way a
criminal, in fact, just the opposite. He seems like a very good
person that has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress
disorder and he certainly needs to come back to the United
States and get treatment. And I was hoping that you could
comment on that. I wanted to bring it up.
The other members of the delegation in San Diego are
working on this case, and Bill Whitaker, at the U.S. Consulate
General in Tijuana has been fabulous, visiting him and doing
everything he could and can. But anyway I would like you to
comment on that if you could.
Ms. Jacobson. Yes, just briefly. Thank you, Mr. Vargas. As
you know, and obviously you are aware, and I am grateful for
your recognition of that, we have visited Mr. Tahmooressi. We
will continue to do so. I think we have been about 10 times so
far. We have been able to facilitate the visit by his wife. We
will continue to do all that we can to----
Mr. Vargas. I believe it is his mother.
Ms. Jacobson. His mother. I am sorry, you are right.
Exactly right. Sorry. I have made him older than he is. I
apologize. But in any case, we will continue to make sure that
we have family members, facilitate their visit, anything that
we can do to help him. We have also made representations,
obviously to the Mexican Government, to make sure that his
treatment is adequate and appropriate, to make sure that he
gets his hearing as quickly as possible. I believe it is
scheduled for May 28th.
Mr. Vargas. That is right.
Ms. Jacobson. Obviously we want to try and get this
resolved as quickly as possible.
Mr. Vargas. Thank you. And I hope you can. Again, it seems
like a very unfortunate situation that happens quite often. The
other issue we talked about a little bit is border
efficiencies. I would bring up the issue of infrastructure.
Obviously you need more infrastructure in San Ysidro. We are
moving forward. I thank you very, very much. And I just remind
you of Calexico. It takes me less than 20 minutes to drive to
the border and oftentimes it takes me 3\1/2\ to 4 hours to
cross back.
Ms. Jacobson. Yes, San Ysidro and Otay Mesa get all the
attention. But you are right, there are a lot of things going
on all along the California-Mexico border. In the Calexico-
Mexicali port of entry, a design has been completed for a two-
phase renovation and I think that will hopefully be able to get
underway pretty quickly. I do think that obviously the much
bigger effort has been the three-phase renovation at San Ysidro
which has expanded booths, inspection booths.
Mr. Vargas. Thank you very much for that.
Ms. Jacobson. Twenty four to 46. It is pretty amazing isn't
it?
Mr. Vargas. That is right.
Ms. Jacobson. And obviously work on Otay Mesa East, but we
are not forgetting Calexico at all.
Mr. Vargas. Thank you very much. And lastly, the North
American Development Bank. The NAD Bank has done quite a lot of
good in San Diego and especially in Imperial County. And I just
would hope that you would take a look at that again and hope
that there is still a strong commitment by our Government to
the NAD Bank. And again I just want to bring that up because it
has been a very important bank for a lot of the issues that
confront poor neighborhoods and poor areas along the border.
Ms. Jacobson. Thank you so much, Mr. Vargas. I was actually
a NAD Bank board member earlier in my career. I think it has
gone from being called the Nada Bank to being a real
powerhouse, and one of its most important original missions was
to make sure that it served some of the poorest communities.
And I think it is incredibly important that it continues to do
so.
Mr. Vargas. Okay. And just again, just to emphasize that we
have had a great relationship with Mexico along the border. Our
U.S. Consulate in Tijuana has been fabulous. But there are
little things that happen along the border and it is
understandable Mexico wants tough laws to make sure that you
don't import guns and we want that too. I mean, we have talked
about that here.
But this poor Marine, he inadvertently crossed, I mean, in
no way, shape, or form is he a drug trafficker, a gun
trafficker. He is a gentleman who served honorably. And he
unfortunately didn't see the last turn. You turn here, and he
crossed into Mexico, told the truth, and now we have him there.
Anyway I yield back now.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Vargas. We are going to go
now to Mr. Randy Weber of Texas.
Mr. Weber. Thank you.
Ambassador, you said in your questioning from Chairman
Royce, you gave a whole list of different law enforcement
agencies, and I must have stepped out right before that
happened. What was that list in response to?
Mr. Brownfield. The chairman had noted that the Attorney
General of California was providing some support for
prosecutorial training in California. And Mr. Weber, what I
did, I took advantage of the opportunity to note that there was
a large list of state and local law enforcement and judicial
that had done this.
Mr. Weber. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Ms. Jacobson, you said in your comments that our border
with Mexico was more secure than ever. What matrix, what data
are you using to come to that conclusion?
Ms. Jacobson. Congressman, I think that basically the data
I would use to point to that is that there are fewer people
coming in through the, we had net migration from Mexico of
zero. We have a period, we have more resources, more people,
more high tech equipment that is being used; obviously
resources provided by Congress to keep that border secure.
Mr. Weber. Do you have a breakdown by state what those
resources are?
Ms. Jacobson. I could certainly get additional information
from our colleagues at the Department of Homeland Security.
Mr. Weber. Let us do that. Did you have input from the
various state agencies responsible along those four states'
borders?
Ms. Jacobson. We certainly work with many of the agencies
in the states as does DHS.
Mr. Weber. Okay. Because I was vice chairman of the Borders
Committee in Texas, and I would tell you that when I was there,
and I was there before I came to Congress this term, that
wasn't their assessment, that the border was safer. I can tell
you that from speaking to Steve McCraw, the Director of the
DPS, former FBI, he is a retired FBI official, and that was not
their assessment. You are aware of the recent reports that the
current administration had released some 36,000 convicted
illegals?
Ms. Jacobson. Yes, sir.
Mr. Weber. Okay. And you still think that we have a safe
border?
Ms. Jacobson. I think that we have made huge strides in
security along the border. Yes, sir.
Mr. Weber. Okay. I would like to get the data that you used
to come to that conclusion. So you have not--and that was
really going to be my question, Ambassador Brownfield. The
Texas DPS or the Texas agencies, they were not on that list. I
did not hear you read the Texas Attorney General. Did I miss
that?
Mr. Brownfield. I am going to jump ahead of you here, Mr.
Weber. I am pleased to report that about 2 months ago I had the
pleasure and the honor to be in Austin. I did spend about 4
hours in the company of the Director of the Department of
Public Safety, Mr. McCraw. We did sign an MOU as of about 2\1/
2\ months ago, whereby Texas DPS will, in fact, be a partner.
They will be on this list as we work our way into programs and
projects that are specifically related to their areas of
expertise.
Mr. Weber. Okay. Let me break in there. Because when I was
Border Committee vice chair, my only two terms in the Texas
legislature, if I remember the numbers right, we put, and
Joaquin was there in the legislature with us, I think we put
$200 million in equipment and boots on the ground. We have got
five helicopters. We have got surveillance airplanes. We have
got a high speed boat. We have got a lot of high-tech stuff
along the border of Texas and obviously the Mexican border.
And my question was going to be, we have spent a lot of
money to help secure the border down south with Guatemala, for
example, but are we spending a commensurate amount on the
northern border? Because I will tell you, that arguably the
Texas legislature will tell you, that the Federal Government
has not been kicking in a commensurate amount on the Texas-
Mexican border. Ambassador, what say you?
Mr. Brownfield. First, I get to hide, Congressman, and say
that we of course are the international side, so by definition
we are working south of the border. Second, I will say that I
had the same conversation with Mr. McCraw that you have had and
I agree that is his view. When I said to him my perspective is
that the situation on the border is, in fact, getting better,
he said that is not the reality we are dealing with, and he----
Mr. Weber. Let me break in for the record, because I want
this on the record. He told me that 76 sects, S-E-C-T-S,
Eastern religion sects, are coming across our southern border.
Now that ought to scare, what we call in southeast Texas, the
bejabbers out of people. Seventy religious sects, Eastern sects
from the Middle East. So I would simply say for the record, Mr.
Chairman, that we need to be sure that we focus on securing our
border, and I yield back. Thank you.
Chairman Royce. Mr. Joseph Kennedy of Massachusetts.
Mr. Kennedy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for calling
such an important hearing. To the witnesses, thank you for your
testimony today. Thank you for your patience. And most
importantly, thank you for your service. Extraordinarily
important, and you have all distinguished yourselves over many
years of service, so thank you very, very much for that.
I am going to, I think, strike a theme that many of my
colleagues have also already talked about a bit with you, Mr.
Ambassador. You talked a bit in your testimony already and in
many of the questions that have been asked about the recent
positive developments regarding economic and energy reforms
taking place in Mexico and the recent capture of ``El Chapo''
as an example of how the United States and Mexico can cooperate
and make both countries safer in targeting drug traffickers.
Drug trafficking is of pretty good interest to me as a
former prosecutor, and I think most importantly, across
Massachusetts heroin overdoses are on the rise. In my district,
specifically, Bristol County has been on the front line of this
painful epidemic, and by the end of last month the Taunton
Police Department confirmed that there have been over 140
heroin overdoses in the city in 2014 alone.
Equally concerning is SAMHSA's, the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration, recent report that shows
12.3 percent of Massachusetts youth between the ages of 12 and
17 reported using illicit drugs within a month before the
survey was conducted. Compare that to the national average of
9.8 percent.
I spoke with local leaders, health care providers, law
enforcement officials from Taunton, Fall River, across Bristol
County, who stressed two things driving the surge in overdoses
and addiction. First, the prevalence of prescription drug abuse
that is often the root cause of opiate addiction. Four out of
five heroin users started with prescription opioids before
moving on to harder drugs.
And number two, the rash of, and I know you talked about
this a moment ago, incredibly cheap heroin that is flooding our
streets, making it more tempting for a kid addicted to
oxycontin that can go for up to $80 a pill to $3 a bag for a
bag of heroin in parts of Massachusetts.
In its March 2013 report, the INL, the Bureau of
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement in the Department
of State, states that ``Mexico accounts for about 7 percent of
the world's leading heroin supply and most of it is smuggled
into the U.S.'' DEA officials I met with confirmed that large
amounts of the drugs you find on the streets in cities like
Taunton have Mexican origins, and a large, I believe it is a
front page story in the New York Times today talks about New
York City as being a hub of heroin for distribution across the
northeast, much of that coming from Mexico.
Mr. Brownfield, you have talked a bit about this already,
but if you can give us some detail as to what advice you would
give me, what advice you would give this committee as to what
we can do about this on top of your efforts that you are
already undertaking, I would be grateful.
Mr. Brownfield. Congressman, I am going to start with
something that, I don't know how often you hear it but I will
say it, I agree with absolutely everything you have just said.
There is not one point of disagreement in what you have just
described that I would point to.
Mr. Kennedy. I don't get that often enough, but thank you.
Mr. Brownfield. I would say the following, and I know we
are not supposed to create headlines here, Roberta, Beth, but
I, in fact, do believe the United States of America is
confronting a nationwide heroin crisis. I have seen the same
statistics you have. Over the last 4 years, the number of
addicts and abusers of heroin in the United States of America
has jumped between 75 and 80 percent. The amount of estimated
pure heroin that is entering the United States has increased by
nearly 100 percent. Heroin is now found in neighborhoods,
cities, regions of the country where it never was seen before.
And we are, I would also suggest, set up to address a
different sort of drug problem. We have gotten pretty good at
it over the last 40 years, and that is interrupting the flow of
cocaine and methamphetamines that start in South America,
process in transit through Central America and Mexico or the
Caribbean, and enter the United States of America.
Heroin is a different problem set. We have got to get our
head around that problem set, and we will have to address it or
we will pay very long term consequences. Mexico is very much a
part of this issue. You have cited the statistic. The statistic
I have read is roughly 26 metric tons of pure heroin produced
in Mexico any given year.
That may sound like a lot, although may I remind the
members of this committee we estimate 600 to 650 is produced in
Afghanistan. But nevertheless, if the U.S. market is between 15
and 40 tons per year, 26 tons actually goes pretty far toward
satisfying the entire market. And we are going to have to
adjust our tactics, our policy, our dialogue, and our diplomacy
in order to address heroin as well as cocaine and
methamphetamines. That is the answer I give you today.
Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Ambassador, I know I am over time, but if
you might be able to respond in writing with some suggestions
on how we should do that I would be grateful. Thank you. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Kennedy. We now go to Adam
Kinzinger of Illinois.
Mr. Kinzinger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all
for being here. Appreciate it. A very important hearing to
have, and a relationship that I think sometimes both countries
take for granted. So I appreciate the attention being brought
to this today.
I just want to add to the heroin issue, the talk on that.
There is a youth recovery center in my district and I went to
that recently. And the person who was taking me around and
introducing me to these teenagers, 14-15 years old, said,
``Hey, ask these kids what they are addicted to, what their
addiction is.'' And I mean, when I was in high school the drug
issue was marijuana, right. That was the extent of it.
So I asked the kids, ``What are you guys addicted to? What
is your issue?'' And half of the kids in that room were heroin.
I mean it shocked me. It actually caught me way off guard. I
knew it was a rising epidemic. I didn't realize 14- and 15-
year-olds were getting into heroin as intensely as they are.
And in areas of my district you can buy it cheaper than
marijuana now. So it is a real, real issue.
I guess, let me ask Ms. Jacobson, I am going to switch
subjects now off of that. Mexico was projected to grow last
year at 3 percent. It actually had a 1.1 percent growth.
Economists are predicting that there is going to be much better
growth this year. Given the fact that our economies are so
interconnected and given some of the reforms going on in
Mexico, how do you think those reforms are going to impact
economic growth in Mexico and therefore our growth? And if you
could keep it fairly short, because I have a couple other
issues I want to hit too.
Ms. Jacobson. I will try and be really quick because I
don't have the crystal ball. I wish I did.
Mr. Kinzinger. You don't? Oh, too bad.
Ms. Jacobson. I wish I did have the answer to that
question. But I do think that the reforms open up possibilities
for greater economic growth. I think the real question to some
extent is how quickly, right? The implementing legislation gets
put into place, now the expectations are very high.
But it is not clear to me that the results of that, in
terms of improved economic performance and growth, are going to
be immediate. So I don't know how quickly----
Mr. Kinzinger. So maybe the hope is today we get kind of a
boost from just people feeling better about it.
Ms. Jacobson. Certainly you get some increased expectations
and positive feelings. I think you probably get some increased
investment, and I think then you begin to get real changes.
Mr. Kinzinger. Thank you.
Ambassador Brownfield, I am an international guard pilot.
One of the missions I actually have flown is on the border of
Mexico as part of border operations, I guess we will call it. I
worked with Customs and Border Patrol. I have seen firsthand
the threat that a porous border creates. And I am not talking
about people coming over. I am talking about illicit drug trade
and everything along that level.
And I think, frankly, that issue creates damage and
mistrust between the two countries to an extent, and I think a
secure border could mean different things to different people,
as we talk about everybody says they want a secure border.
So I want to ask you a question specifically. Talk about,
yes, do you have the 21st century border and the four pillars I
know that you have talked about in this initiative? Could you
describe what you envision? What does a secure border under
this look like and especially when it comes to illicit drug
trade?
Mr. Brownfield. Sure. And I would remind you as I start,
Congressman, that of course what we are doing for the Merida
Initiative is on the southern side of the border. That is our
focus. State, local, and Federal law enforcement obviously
manages the northern side, the U.S. side of the border.
First and foremost, our focus is on equipment. A modern
21st century border is a border that, in fact, has the sort of
inspection equipment that allows your authorities to verify
what is coming through or to the border in a way that does not
create 50-mile backlogs and 2-week delays in order to cross the
border.
And I mentioned over the last 4 years we have provided $112
million worth of nonintrusive inspection equipment, and we
believe that has been responsible for $3.8 billion worth of
seizures. A pretty good----
Mr. Kinzinger. Just real quickly. Some of that stuff that
is being repatriated from Iraq and Afghanistan, for instance,
that we are bringing back, I mean ISR type platforms, stuff
like that?
Mr. Brownfield. Not yet. However, you have put your finger,
Congressman, on an issue that has increasingly become a matter
of internal discussion within the executive branch. And that is
simply put, resources or assets that are, in fact, going to be
drawn down and removed from one region that could be put to
this mission, not just incidentally along the U.S.-Mexico
border but in other parts of this hemisphere as well? And we
are actively assessing it as you can imagine. My coming-in
position is, I would like to apply as much of that as possible
to this mission.
Mr. Kinzinger. Yes, and as an ISR pilot, like I said, and
operating overseas in the war but also operating domestically
in those kinds of areas, I think it is very important and it
helps our situational awareness.
My time is out. I just want to make a quick statement too
in terms of the importance of our natural gas resources here. I
know Mexico really needs the natural gas that we have, and so I
would like to put a plug in to say that we are in a good
position to really help our neighbors in terms of that. So with
that, thank you all for your generous time in being here. Mr.
Chairman, I will yield back.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Kinzinger. We now go to
Joaquin Castro from Texas.
Mr. Castro. Thank you, Chairman, and thank each of you for
your testimony. My grandmother is from Coahuila, Mexico, from a
small town, San Pedro. My wife's family is from Reynosa in
Tamaulipas. And San Antonio, as you know, over the years has
been very instrumental in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. It is a
place where NAFTA was signed. It is home to the NAD Bank. And
so there is a lot of trade that goes on between the state of
Texas and Mexico. Texas has the longest border with Mexico at
1,200 miles.
And so in reviewing some of these documents that you guys
provided, I was struck by the incredible drop in aid from $265
million to $140 million from year to year. And I know that you
provided some explanation for that, but how would you answer
the charge that the U.S. is backing away on its commitment to
Mexico, and also how does that number compare with any aid of
other countries in Latin America? Has there been a drop in aid
to Latin America?
Ms. Jacobson. Congressman, a couple of things on that.
First of all, on the Mexican relationship, having been present
at the birth, if you will, of the Merida Initiative when I was
first the Director of Mexican Affairs and then the Deputy
Assistant Secretary, it did start very large. And we did know
that it was going to ease off because of the equipment that
was, as we said, very explicitly front loaded, because
equipment takes a long time, helicopters in particular. You
have to order it and decide which kind.
But we also were in conversations with the Mexican
Government--at the time their feeling was very clear--they did
not believe they were going to need assistance from the U.S.
Government for a very long time. That they were an OECD
country, that they had very good resources, and that they
needed our expertise more than they needed huge amounts of
resources for equipment.
The government of President Pena Nieto believes they still
need our expertise and our training, but that the reduced
amounts will be sufficient for what they require of us. So we
do believe that these reduced amounts, we hope they will not
trail off precipitously from here but that they will----
Mr. Castro. Oh, that is a huge drop----
Ms. Jacobson. It is a very large drop. But we have also
gotten past the biggest equipment purchases, as Ambassador
Brownfield mentioned.
Mr. Castro. Sure. And in Latin America generally.
Ms. Jacobson. But in Latin America, let me say honestly I
certainly would not deny that there has been a very large drop.
Mr. Castro. Well, and the reason I asked that is because I
know there is a competition for dollars around here. And there
has been over the years a dropping commitment, I believe, to
foreign aid and to the United States' involvement and
engagement of the world, which I don't think is good for our
country. And so I guess what I am trying to get at is are we
robbing Peter to pay Paul?
Ms. Jacobson. There is a huge amount of pressure on the
budget. That certainly can't be denied. There is a lot of----
Mr. Castro. And I wouldn't necessarily blame the
administration for having to do that. I just want us to be
clear about what is going on.
Ms. Jacobson. During this period, when there has been so
much pressure on the budget, we have also seen the period in
time where growth rates in Latin America, especially in some
countries in the region, have been very, very strong. In some
of those places we have felt it was perfectly appropriate to
reduce aid because it just wasn't as necessary as in the past,
or because we didn't feel that we needed the same amounts in
the same areas as before.
It is not to say that there are not still needs, but is it
an area in which the U.S. can do something that the NGO
community or international organizations cannot fill? We feel
that we are doing what we should be doing in the region, but it
has been a large reduction.
Mr. Castro. But I think, unfortunately, that has been the
relationship with Latin America over the years, where Latin
America is put on the back burner and is one of the first
regions to get cut. And I don't think that is in the best
interest of the United States.
But I have a second question. The Congress right now is
debating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and in debating the TPA
and the Trans-Pacific Partnership we are looking back to NAFTA.
And for many Democrats in particular, they wonder what the
environmental and labor standards, what has happened to those
in Mexico, the United States also, but in the countries at
stake. So what has NAFTA done in terms of labor and the
environment in Mexico since its passage 20 years ago?
Ms. Jacobson. Well, I think one of the important things
about TPP, Congressman, is that it brings some of the countries
that were involved in our early free trade agreements, where
things like labor and environment were, as you will recall,
side letters, not integral parts of the free trade agreements.
More recent free trade agreements have had labor and
environment as part of the free trade agreements. And what TPP
would do is look at the higher standard for labor and
environment, which I think is critically important.
Mr. Castro. True. And I know I am out of time. I will
follow up with you all.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen [presiding]. Thank you so much, Mr.
Castro. Thank you to our witnesses for being here. The chair
recognizes herself.
While I recognize the importance of the improvements that
we have made jointly in the judicial sector, I believe it is
only prudent for the U.S. to continue to seek and push
extradition of high value criminals who could provide us
insight into the drug trade in our region.
Three months ago, with our assistance the Mexican
Government apprehended, as we all know, Chapo Guzman, one of
the world's most notorious drug traffickers. Many of our
members including Mr. McCaul have brought up the issue of
extraditing him. We have got to continue to put pressure on
Mexico so we don't have more of these cases. And thank you to
everyone who has brought it up. Please keep that as one of our
priorities.
And I am also concerned about the human rights situation in
Cuba, not just in Mexico, not just for Mexican nationals, but
for U.S. citizens. In 2012, I led the effort for another Marine
veteran, Jon Hammar, who also, like this sad case, ended up in
a Mexican jail for far too long. The family was at first quiet,
but then became vocal because they were not getting much
success.
And today, as Congressman Vargas had pointed out, there is
a new case in Mexico of Andrew Tahmooressi, a Marine veteran
from south Florida. I was pleased to join Mr. Vargas and Mr.
Duncan Hunter in a letter to the Embassy in Mexico, asking that
this hero be helped out in his sad situation. I would like to
put that in for the record.
And also I joined a letter with Debbie Wasserman Schultz
and the mom of Andrew, who lives in her district. So Mario
Diaz-Balart and Ted Deutch, our congressional colleagues, and I
joined Debbie on this letter, regarding the 25-year-old Marine
Corps veteran from Weston, Florida. And we are very worried
about this case, and it takes a lot of pressure and a lot of
U.S. help to get these cases resolved. And I hope that in the
same way you helped with Jon Hammar that you help out with
Andrew's case, and I will put those in the record. And so I
would like for you to comment on that. And secondly, Secretary
Jacobson thank you for rectifying for the record a statement
that had been made in the Senate committee about a different
case, this one on the Venezuela sanctions bill. I did not want
to let the opportunity that you are before me, always to speak
about other areas of interest of mine including my native
homeland of Cuba and in this case Venezuela that you had
inartfully said that the Venezuelan opposition was against the
sanctions bill.
Thank you for clarifying that that is not the case. Whether
they are or aren't, I think it is the right thing for the
United States to sanction human rights violators that have
killed so many in Venezuela. Leopoldo Lopez's third month in
jail, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado stripped of her
legislative seat. We hope that we can move that bill quickly in
the House. I know Senator Menendez and Senator Rubio are
working on that as well. So I did not want to take too much
time on that because I know it is about Mexico.
But today is Cuban Independence Day. We wish that Cuba were
truly independent. I would like for that to be truly the case.
And so if you could comment, Secretary Jacobson, on Andrew's
case, on Venezuela, and Cuban Independence Day.
Ms. Jacobson. Thank you, Madam Chair. And on Andrew
Tahmooressi's case, as I mentioned earlier we will continue to
do everything that we can for him. Certainly everything that we
can do to get him home to his family, to get him out of
detention.
I guess all I can say in this case is I hope that we will
continue to work together on this one as actively, each of us
in our own way, because when these things happen all we want is
to get these folks home as quickly as we can. So thank you for
your efforts on it and we will continue to do what we can along
with our consulate in Tijuana and our Embassy in Mexico City.
These are important cases. I appreciate Congressman Vargas
bringing it up and we will continue to do everything we can on
that.
And just to say thank you for mentioning the clarification
on Venezuela. I too was noticing this week the comments that
dialogue cannot be--what was the comment? Dialogue should not
just be a tertulia. It is not just dialogue for dialogue's
sake. It has to be dialogue with an endpoint of action, and
those are the actions that we both want to see. So I certainly
agree with you on that. Not just dialogue for dialogues sake
otherwise----
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Because it is just running out the clock
and not----
Ms. Jacobson. Exactly.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen [continuing]. Really wanting any
resolution.
Ms. Jacobson. Otherwise other means have to be taken----
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. We have got to hold them accountable.
Ms. Jacobson [continuing]. To demonstrate our disapproval.
And on Cuban Independence Day, let me say we also agree that we
look forward to a day when the Cuban people can make their own
decisions about their own future.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Amen. Thank you so much. Thank you to all
of you. Mr. Connolly is recognized.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Let me ask Assistant Secretary Jacobson, and I understand
in advance, diplomatically, what your answer is likely to be,
but there have been people who have looked at northern Mexico
and have felt, frankly, it falls within the rubric of a failed
state. How would you react to that?
Ms. Jacobson. Congressman, that question came up fairly
often early in the discussion of the situation in Mexico 5, 6
years ago and it was a serious question, but I think there
really is a serious negative answer to that question. That is
to say, I do not think we have a failed state in any part of
Mexico.
There are government structures still in place everywhere
in Mexico which I believe are exercising their functions. They
may be stronger or weaker depending on where the drug trade is
being plied, they may be under siege in some places and need
the support of the Federal Government, as has been the case
once again now in Tamaulipas which is where the Federal
Government is sending in both security forces and prosecutors,
as was the case obviously in Michoacan, as has been the case in
many places where these transnational criminal organizations
come in. But I don't think we can say that all state
administration and power has been lost in places in Mexico.
Mr. Connolly. That is a fair point. But I think, would you
agree though, that obviously one of the challenges of the
relatively new government is they are going to have to
reestablish authority in some places where the previous
government clearly lost it?
Ms. Jacobson. Well, I think one of the challenges is how do
you strengthen government institutions against transnational
criminal organizations which need them weak, either weak or
nonexistent in order to carry out their business, right, and
use violence as a tool to do that?
Mr. Connolly. Yes.
Ms. Jacobson. So absolutely.
Mr. Connolly. Speaking of violence, when I was last in
Mexico we met with the previous Attorney General of Mexico. And
when we asked him what is the single most important thing the
United States could do to help you with this outbreak of
violence and challenge reassertion of state control in the
northern part of the country, the single thing without
hesitation, he didn't think, the single thing he cited was that
the United States should reauthorize the assault weapons ban.
Do you understand why he would answer that way?
Ms. Jacobson. I believe I do understand why he would answer
that way.
Mr. Connolly. Could you elaborate for the record? Why is
that important?
Ms. Jacobson. Well, certainly I, and I think both of my
colleagues here can testify to the fact that we have certainly
heard from our Mexican counterparts numerous times their
concern and frustration with the amount of weapons in Mexico.
Mr. Connolly. All which are coming through the north. Is
that correct? Or a lot of them.
Ms. Jacobson. I don't actually know what the composition
is, but it is certainly their perception, and it seems to be
the reality, that a great number of them do come from the
United States. And it is obviously very, very difficult to own
weapons in Mexico. So they have done, they believe, what they
can within the country and are frustrated with the, actually
what they are frustrated with, I think, is the advanced
weaponry that they face from these cartels wherever they may
get it.
Mr. Connolly. Yes. I just think that is really important,
and it is not part of our discussion up here for political
reasons, but our neighbor to the south says that is a critical
component of our assistance.
Ms. Jacobson. Yes, sir.
Mr. Connolly. Let me ask both you and Ambassador Brownfield
my last question. Could you just elaborate a little bit? There
were concerns that President Pena Nieto did not have the same
commitment against the drug cartels that his predecessor did
and that cooperation with the United States would be diminished
in a Nieto government.
Could you each comment on your sense of how things have
changed or stayed the same or gotten better or worse with the
transition of governance in Mexico?
Mr. Brownfield. I will start, Congressman, first, by saying
as I think I said in my opening statement that we, in fact, are
both satisfied, pleased with the commitment and the cooperation
of the Pena Nieto administration to this joint shared security
effort. There was a period, call it the break-in period for a
new administration, where the communication was paused, where
we did a mutual review where we determined what would be the
system, the structure and the means by which we would make
decisions and what we would decide on.
It is our judgment that this now not-so-new government has
kept the basic four pillars of our cooperation, but has
adjusted the priorities to some extent. More focus on crime
prevention, particularly in the larger cities, and perhaps less
focus on targeting the specific criminal organizations. That
said, it was this government that produced the successful Chapo
Guzman takedown operation 3 months ago, which I noted in my
opening statement was perhaps the most important law
enforcement operation since Pablo Escobar was perforated by the
Colombians some 20 years ago in Medellin.
They have focused as well on more community development and
support. This is well within the range of the pillars that we
had agreed to. In other words, I would say we have adjusted our
cooperation but I would not, in fact, I would be the last one
to say that this government has walked away from or decided not
to support the efforts.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much.
Mr. Sherman, to wrap up?
Mr. Sherman. Thank you. You are almost done.
Ms. Jacobson. As long as you want, Mr. Sherman.
Mr. Sherman. I would like to focus on the economics. We
have got a $60 billion trade deficit with Mexico. Part of that
is because we import petroleum from Mexico, but frankly we
should be able to pay for our petroleum with the goods that we
export. In this committee, often there is discussion of U.S.
restrictions on the export of natural gas.
Ms. Jacobson, it is my understanding that because of NAFTA
there is not a restriction of our export of natural gas to
Mexico. Are there legal barriers imposed by the Federal
Government to exporting natural gas to Mexico?
Ms. Jacobson. I am going to have to get back to you, Mr.
Sherman. Sorry.
Mr. Sherman. Okay, thank you. Ms. Jacobson, what can we do
to increase American exports to Mexico, excluding the natural
gas issue?
Ms. Jacobson. Right. I think one of the things that we feel
is critically important, and that the President is focusing on,
is focusing on small- and medium-sized businesses in the United
States which could export and don't right now. That is part of
what the President's National Export Initiative was about.
There are opportunities that we think they could take advantage
of and that is what we are trying to do. There are small
business development centers that have opened in Mexico to try
and----
Mr. Sherman. Does Mexico have non-tariff barriers to our
exports?
Ms. Jacobson. I don't know that I can answer that in any
sweeping sense. I imagine there are----
Mr. Sherman. Is there any----
Ms. Jacobson. There are trade cases that are underway in
some areas right now certainly.
Mr. Sherman. What practices of the Mexican Government have
we questioned or called to task or asked to be changed to allow
our exports in?
Ms. Jacobson. I am going to have to get you a better
rundown of this, I don't want to sort of seat-of-the-pants the
answer to that question.
Mr. Sherman. I understand your situation. We are in
agreement about the State Department. When you deal with the
foreign ministries of other countries, the persons holding your
position would be first, second, and third, economics and
pushing exports, and everything else we have talked about would
be fourth, fifth and sixth. And the State Department is, of all
the foreign ministries in the world, the least focused on
exports. I am sure you do something, but if you compare your
efforts to the foreign ministries of other countries, it is not
the culture over there.
Ms. Jacobson. I would hate to have my weakness on this
performance today speak for my colleagues.
Mr. Sherman. I have been here for 18 years. I had that
opinion before I walked in the room. You have done nothing----
Ms. Jacobson. I have done nothing to dispel it
unfortunately----
Mr. Sherman. Nothing to dispel it but----
Ms. Jacobson [continuing]. But we will get back.
Mr. Sherman [continuing]. What hearing couldn't increase it
or decrease it? It is built on 18 years of sitting in this
room. And even if you are up on all of that it wouldn't change.
It wouldn't erase 18 years. And it is hard. It is hard to go
back to our districts and talk about the need to be involved in
foreign affairs when we are involved in foreign affairs far
more than any other country and we have the biggest trade
deficit of any other country, of any country by far.
Let us see, in any case can you comment on the economic
reforms of the new President? He has been able to enact most of
them, and how do you think these reforms will affect U.S.
investment in Mexico?
Ms. Jacobson. Well, I do think that in two particular
areas, we talked a little bit earlier about the energy reform.
I think the energy reform is critical. It is obviously critical
for Mexicans, but I think it is very important for U.S.
investor possibilities. This is for Mexicans to decide. This is
an issue of great sensitivity in Mexico.
Mr. Sherman. Well, it dramatically affects the entire world
in that if we can increase production in North America----
Ms. Jacobson. Crucial.
Mr. Sherman [continuing]. We can, I mean we just fought a
war in Iraq that I have been told wasn't about oil, but oil
supplies are a critical national security interest.
Ms. Jacobson. Well, and clearly North American energy
production of all types is increasing and that is very, very
good for us and our energy security. But I also think the
telecommunications reform is crucial, and the
telecommunications market in Mexico is one of great interest, I
think, to U.S. investors and opportunities for the United
States and our businesses.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much, Mr. Sherman.
Mr. Sherman. So in our second round I will talk to
Ambassador Brownfield, and in our third round I will talk to
Ms. Hogan.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Well, thank you to the panelists. I hope
that Secretary Kerry brings up Andrew's case during his
upcoming trip to Mexico. And as we wrap up we want to say happy
birthday to Ambassador Brownfield. Feliz cumpleanos, since it
is Mexico.
Mr. Brownfield. I am 39 years old now, Madam Chairman.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. And holding. This committee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:15 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
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