Date: 1988-04-26
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I take this time to visit with the Members and discuss to some extent the pending resolution of decertifying Mexico under the Drug Act for their socalled lack of cooperation with the United States in that effort. Mr. Speaker. first let me say that I wish to commend all the effort that has been done in this country on the war on drugs. but yet listening to a newscast last night I saw where mayors from throughout the United States were concerned that. for example. the FBI is expending less than 4 percent of its budget on drugs or on combating the producing. trafficking. and use of drugs. Also. I saw one of the mayors. I think he was from Allentown. PA. faulting the U.S. Government. or the Federal Government. by saying that when you declare war. you mobilize all your resources. and in this case it has not been done. So let me say to my colleagues in the House and to my friends on the Foreign Affairs Committee how vitally important this action can be not only to us. but to our relations with Mexiec.. because I am concerned that w arc relying only on drugs or the production and trafir! thereof to have our policy as it relates to Mexico be controlled solely by that activity and neglecting all the other things that encompass our relations with a friendly neighbor. Let me say that the United States has vital security. economic. border. and population interests in Mexico. Also. we must realize that Mexico possesses the fourth largest oil reserve in the world and provided 14 percent. 640 million barrels per day. of our crude oil imports in 1987. On the trade issue. Mexico has been the third largest market for United States exports. following only Canada and Japan. Also. our United States companies have over $10 billion invested in direct investment in Mexico. So let me say that to decertify Mexico. n spite of the considerable Mexican efforts. however. would be both unjustified and seriously counterproductive. It would only benefit the traffickers in drugs. Let me say further. Mr. Speaker. that President Reagan has already sent the message both at the Mexican summit in February and in the statement accompanying his full cooperation of certification. It is clear from Mexicos President de la Madrids very positive response and his governments subsequent actions that the message was received and understood. Let me give you slome figures. Mr. Speaker. that I think would be helpful in assessing our position and in judging whether we should decertify or not. These are figures as of the end of March of this year. Poppy fields destroyed: 527.636. Poppy acres destroyed: 110.154 acres. Marijuana fields destroyed: 383.979. Marijuana acres destroyed: 131.810. Cocaine seizures: 49.747 pounds. Street value as judged by the DEA: $6.5 billion. Marijuana seizures in tons: 2.200 tons. Street value in U.S. dollars: $5.3 billion. Vehicles seized: 8.325. Now. this is very important. the next figure. for those who might say that there is a lack of cooperation on the Mexican side. Personnel killed in action in the drug effort: 155. Personnel permanently disabled: Personnel devoted to the drug war from the military: 26.365 fulltime members of the armed services in Mexico. The Attorney Generals office in Mexico: f.550 fulltime members of the Attorney Generals office in Mexico. As a percentage of their budget. the Attorney Generals office in Mexico has more than 60 percent of its budget destined or working in the antidrug effort. Most importantly. my colleagues and my friends. is the fact that there seems to be in Mexico great concern that we yet do not understand them. that we do not care. I think from the President of Mexico down to the lowest level of the Mexican Government. in the states. in the local provinces. in the small towns and villages. they feel that the effort perhaps can be enhanced. Perhaps they could do more. but yet we who have maybe a thousand times more the resources than Mexico has have not been able to stop the inflow of drugs on our coasts or on our borders with Mexico. but yet we demand of them a higher performance than we have been able to achieve on our side. Recently I visited in Mexico. I visited the Governor of the state of Nuevo Leon and we discussed the drug problem. and by the way. they were initiating that day a program with the youth of the state of Nuevo Leon. sort of like our "Say no to drugs" program that Mrs. Reagan and people of good will are working on In this country. My concern is. and I say this as one who shares the ancestry from both sides because where we live in Texas. and New Mexico. and Arizona. and California. and Colorado. and parts of Utah and most of the land west of the Mississippi. after Mexicos independence from Spain we became a part of Mexico. Later. after an invasion of Mexico by the United States military forces. that land was ceded to the UnitedStates by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. I know it is an accident of history. and it cannot be erased. but that made me a Member of the Congress of the United States. I could conceivably have been a member of the Mexican congress had that not happened. had that accident of history not happened. but my concern is now that. that is our border. we are two separate nations. we are two different people but we have to understand the sensitivity. the concern of the people who now live In Mexico when they say that either we do not understand them or if we understand them we do not care and that we are going in a very irresponsible way by using one area of our relationship to condemn Mexico and the people of Mexico in a very embarrassing way in front of the world by saying. "We will decertify you. You will get no foreign aid." Mr. Speaker. Mexico does not get foreign aid from us. In the war on drugs we allow $14 million of which $10 million goes to work with the air fleet. That is about all we do. But then we would say to our representatives at the World Bank and at the InterAmerican Development Bank to vote against Mexicos request for loans. This I do not think is proper. Mr. Speaker. I would hope that my colleagues would look at the figure that I am providing and listen to my concern as a result of visiting with the people in Mexico that this is very serious because they feel that we are as a nation being insensitive when in fact they have lost 155 dead. 300plus disabled. and they are making a major effort militarily and In the civilian forces in Mexico to combat the drug problem. My major concern is the issue of our sensitivity and our caring and our understanding of them because people on the street with whom I have visited say to me. "You already took half of our land. You already took half of our country. Now you are telling us that we are not helping you protect that area." Mr. Speaker. they have told me. "You have come and invaded our country. Your marines have come to the very walls of Chapultepec Castle." We tend to forget that. We forget that kind of thing and those of us who share a similar background. it is very awkward at times because if one listens to the marine hymn. It says "From the halls of Montezuma." Marines were there killing Mexicans over the issue of where the boundary was to be between the thenUnited States and thenMexico. They feel that somehow that accident of history should be rectified at least by being sensitive to their feelings. sensitive to their Government by being cognizant of what they are trying to do as a nation under the most difficult economic times that they are passing through. When I was in Mexico recently a friend of mine that is running for the senate in Mexico in his presentation at a feast honoring him at which I had the honor to be one of the guests of honor. recited the history of Mexico. We who live here in this the greatest most powerful nation In the world should see and feel the pain that they feel because as we severed our relations from Great Britain. the most powerful nation in the world at that time. we shed our blood and then we had a division which killed more people than have been killed in any other war that we have been involved in. That was when the States fought the Civil War to preserve the Union. Mr. Lincolns desire and concern that the Union be preserved. But Mexico has had invasions from Spain. from France. and from the United States. They have had their revolutions. They have come up as a nation in the world through very sad anfs difficult circumstances from the iirst Indians that died under the spears of the Spanish conquistadors to those Mexicans that are dying today under the spear of the drug traffickers and the war lords of the drug World. It is sad that they would have to rely to some degree on a kind of resentment to then ask me. a Member of the Congress of the United States. "Dont your colleagues understand? Dont you rea history? Dont you have the feeling of a neighbor to a neighbor who is trying under very difficult circumstances to do the best we can?" They do not have the use or abuse of drugs to the level that we have it. but they think they might. and they are very concerned. Mr. Speaker. more than that I hear it every day in my area from people that I represent concerned about Central America and every other letter that I get says. "What if they come north? What if they would travel to Mexico from Central America? What could happen to Mexico?" Mr. Speaker. this action could have the propensity to destabilize the Government of Mexico because they are now involved in a political campaign for the Presidency. and whichever candidate wins. it could sour our relations for the next 6 years with that Incoming Government of Mexico. So I very respectfully present this argument to my colleagues. and hopefully to the members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. that this is a very serious matter. Before we act. if we do act. we must do so with full knowledge of the potential impact that it can have on Mexico. on the people of Mexico. on their relations with the United States. on our relations people tu people between our countries. and the ouly ones that could benefit would be the ones we have declared war on. The only ones that could benefit would be the traffickers and the producers of mariJuana. of heroin. and traffickers of the cocaine that comes through Mexico. I am personally satisfied that they are doing the best that they can. We can always say that they could do more and I would join with anyone who would say that because they would admit that perhaps they could do more. but they have limited resources. They are using those limited resources above and beyond what we are using in our own country. It is very difficult not to measure someone by the same yardstick by which one measures oneself. Again very respectfully I urge my colleagues to listen to my plea if for no other reason that those of us who live on the. border are the closest to whatever happens in the relationship between our countries and between our peoples. We cross back and forth every day. The river in my area. the Rio Grande River. separates our two nations. two juridical entities. but it does not separate the people. The people come and go. We have daily relation. ships in commerce. In education. and in culture. We work together all the time on the border. Informally they are working on the drug effort. Our sheriffs and their local commandantes work on an informal basis. There have been mistakes made. I do not think anyone will deny that. More can be done. I do not think anyone could deny that. But the basic matter is the integrity of the government of Mexico. the integrity of our Government. and our ability to deal with our neighbors. not only Mexico but around the world. that we be able to deal with them in a manner which is straightforward. which is direct. which if needed to be harsh will be harsh but in a respectful manner and not to say that we would do so in a threatening way. They could just tell us where to go and say. "Dont send your $14 million. We will go our own way as far as combating drugs is concerned." They are not going to stop their war effort against the drug traffickers. They are not going to stop it. but we would lose any sense of cooperative spirit. Mr. Speaker. I would hope that we can bilaterally at the highest level work together. We have had a bilateral commission headed by the Vice President. We have had lower level working commission. Our Attorney General has been to those meetings. We have been working together. We know in the Congress that there has been a Joint commission proposed but which never has been implemented. We still have a ways to go within this administration and the Congress where together we can work with members of the Mexican Government. Our Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control works on an informal basis with these various groups. The gentleman from New York [Mr. RANGELI. the gentleman from New York . the ranking minority member. they are In contact and they work together with these groups. they discuss these things. They do not agree always but they work and discuss together. So I feel that we should have at the highest level the continuation of bilateral cooperative arrangements and have it at every level. We in the Congress must do likewise. I serve through the courtesy of the Speaker and my colleagues who honor me as chairman of the House part of the United StatesMexico Interparliamentary Union. I have also been able to discuss one on one with our colleagues from Mexico. with their senators and their representatives. and always there is that concern sometimes unspoken but understood by us who understand them that we lack the sensitivity. that we lack the caring part of where Mexico is going. of what Mexico can do for itself. The population in MJexico will almost double by the elid of this century. L_ 2015 That can be very dangerous also because of poverty. because of the lack of employment. because of the needs of people. schools. housing. water. power. which are all of those things Mexico is working at slowly. but they do not have the resources. They do not have the resources. To be able to maintain that effort with the growing population and the effort on the drug trafficking and/or production has beena very difficult problem for them. and I can attest from my personal perspective that Mexico has. is. and will continue to do the utmost in cooperating with us. because they care. they care if a young child dies of an overdose In Chicago or New York or Washington. DC. They care if someone is killed because of the very. very serious situation we have in our country In relation to drugs. Sometimes they ask. "If you would stop the use. then you would not complain about our sending it." Maybe we have not done as much in curtailing the use on this side. but we should continue our work and our effort in that respect also. We have lost DEA agents here and in Mexico. we have lost law enforcement officials here and in Mexico. We complain that there is corruption in Mexico. There is corruption here. There are more drug dollars than in the treasury of most of the Latin American und Central American countries. A warlord can buy a country. because he would have more billions than there are in the treasury of some country. So the impact can be worldwide. and most important to us. in Central America and South America. more needs to be done. But I can attest to the fact from my perspective. my personal observation. Mexico is doing. and will continue doing. what is the responsible thing. I would hope that my colleagues. beginning in the Committee on Foreign Affairs. would not decertify Mexico. but rather. would do something positive in connection with how we can continue working together. how we can enhance our effort to hopefully someday rid both Mexico and the United States of this very. very sad and difficult situation which is the use. abuse. and trafficking of drugs. I thank my colleagues for their patience with me in listening to my plea. I yield back the balance of my time.