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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: Mexican Ambassador Cannot Account for Murdered Americans Mexican Ambassador Cannot Account for Murdered Americans
Monday, July 14, 2008
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer
(CNSNews.com) - Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., says the Mexican government does not centrally oversee cases of Americans murdered in Mexico.
Sarukhan was on Capitol Hill Thursday to discuss legislation that will give his country millions of dollars to fight drug trafficking and violence.
“There is no centralized tracking in lieu of them being citizens of another nation,” Sarukhan said when asked by Cybercast News Service if Mexican authorities had any information about arrests or convictions in the cases of 128 U.S. citizens who the U.S. State Department said were murdered or executed in Mexico between Jan. 1, 2005 and Dec. 31, 2007.
Cybercast News Service reported previously on the number of Americans murdered in Mexico. The information came from a U.S. State Department report on non-natural deaths of U.S. citizens abroad over a three-year period.
The State Department also told Cybercast News Service that it does not publish reports on the number of Americans kidnapped in Mexico and that Mexican sovereignty keeps U.S. law enforcement from operating in the country.
That fact seemed to be tested recently when a Mexican national relative of a U.S. congressman was kidnapped in Mexico in June and rescued three days later. Staff at Rep. Silvestre Reyes’ (D-Texas) office contacted the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arm of Homeland Security, which along with the FBI, helped secure the release of Erika Possert, according to the Associated Press.
Reyes is a six-term congressman and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which does not oversee ICE.
In a June 27 statement, Reyes said his office notified law enforcement after a relative of the victim called his office. Relatives also paid a $32,000 ransom to the kidnappers, according to the Associated Press.
“The Congressman’s staff immediately notified law enforcement authorities,” the statement said. “We notify law enforcement in these circumstances without regard to the victim’s identity, country of citizenship, or legal status.”
“Congressman Reyes was informed of the incident by his staff after law enforcement had been notified,” the statement said. “While the Congressman was kept apprised of the situation, he had no other role. Any suggestion that Congressman Reyes somehow influenced the actions of law enforcement is false.”
But the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), called for Homeland Security to investigate whether Reyes used his influence to gain the help of U.S. law enforcement in the kidnapping case.
“There have been other cases of people who have been kidnapped and other Americans who have asked for help for their relatives, and I don’t think that they’ve been given that help,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, told Cybercast News Service.
“This was a situation where a foreign national on foreign soil was kidnapped by foreigners,” Sloan said. “I just didn’t understand what American interest there is in rescuing this woman. Not that it’s not good she is rescued and everybody is happy she is okay. But why this case and no other? That doesn’t make sense.
“Is there a new American foreign policy? Are we going to start helping victims of kidnapping in Mexico, of which there are many? So I thought (Homeland Security) should answer those questions,” Sloan added.
Sarukhan was instrumental in getting Congress to approve the Merida Initiative.
The agreement, crafted by President Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, states that the U.S. will give $1.4 billion to Mexico to “disrupt the trafficking of narcotics, money, people and arms across the (U.S./Mexico) border and to combat criminal organizations operating in both countries.”
Several million of the more than $1 billion plan will be given to Central America as part of a regional strategy, the Merida Initiative states.
Sarukhan said murder cases in Mexico are handled by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies depending on the nature of the investigation, but he could not provide specific information.
“There are U.S. citizens who are caught up in the drug violence or who, unfortunately, are killed because they are involved in the drug trade,” Sarukhan said.
The State Department told Cybercast News Service on June 11 that it did not track the cases of Americans murdered in Mexico and the Mexican attorney general’s office is in charge of those cases, but requests by Cybercast News Service for information on the cases from that office were not granted.
Cybercast News Service has filed a Freedom of Information Act with the State Department to gain the names and other information about the 128 U.S. citizens murdered in Mexico in recent years.
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