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88–015PDF 2014

THE FUTURE OF U.S.–MEXICO RELATIONS

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

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

LUKE MESSER, Indiana 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

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 Jesu ́ s 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

(1)

THE FUTURE OF U.S.–MEXICO RELATIONS 

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, endVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:51 Jul 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\052014\88015 SHIRL
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ing 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. 

3

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. 

4

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 

5

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 situ- ation, 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. dollar 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 

6

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. 

7

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 MexVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:51 Jul 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\052014\88015 SHIRL
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ico 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 

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emies 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 

25

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, smalland 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:]

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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 

32

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 

33

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 

34

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 

35

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 

36

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 

37

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 

38

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 imVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:51 Jul 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00042 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\052014\88015 SHIRL
39

portant 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, 

40

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, 

41

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 

42

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 141⁄2 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 

43

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 31⁄2 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 threephase 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? 

44

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. 

45

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 21⁄2 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 reliVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:51 Jul 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00049 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\052014\88015 SHIRL
46

gion 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. 

47

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 

48

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 InitiaVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:51 Jul 28, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00052 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\052014\88015 SHIRL
49

tive 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 pro- vided, 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, 

50

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 

51

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 

52

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 

53

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, 

54

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? 

55

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? 

56

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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