Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I strongly support this bill to tangibly advance the Bush/Calderon Merida initiative and to build our neighbors’ capacity to fight narcotrafficking, and I am particularly interested in the human rights safeguards that have been written into the legislation. 

    Mr. Chairman, the people of Mexico and Central America are getting it from both sides—right now they are suffering terribly from the outrages perpetrated by the narcotrafficking gangs, and from the general lawlessness these gangs have spread, especially along the border. But people are also suffering from the human rights abuses committed by the Mexican and other Central American police forces. 

    Though most of the human rights abuses have not been perfectly substantiated, there are far too many of them for us not to take this concern very seriously. Many of us on this committee have signed Rep. Solis’s letter to Mexican officials on the case of the large group of women raped by police in San Salvador Atenco, Mexico. I am also sending a letter requesting the investigation be pursued more vigorously. 

    I want to mention another horrifying case: the hundreds and hundreds of young women murdered or reported missing in Juarez, Mexico. Of those whose bodies were found, many had been mutilated or the victims of the most brutal sexual violence. Juarez is border city and a hub for drug smuggling northward, and a major human rights group has suggested that the murders might be an initiation ritual for narcotrafficking rings. Many others have suggested that corruption by narcotraffickers has prevented the murders from being properly investigated. In any case, human rights groups have long documented the deep flaws in the Mexican police, who have a history of serious human rights violations, a culture of almost total impunity. 

    The situation in Juarez has gone on for so long, and is so terrible, that it has drawn world-wide attention. In 2006 this House passed a resolution pointing up the Mexican prosecutor’s evidence that the Juarez police have been negligent in investigating these horrific crimes. Last week, I am proud to say, students at Georgian Court University, which is in my district, not only held a prayer service for the murder victims and a march to urge Mexican authorities to redouble their investigative efforts, but in March five Georgian Court students, accompanied by Sr. Tina Geiger, traveled to the border area, where they observed the situation firsthand. 

    So, on one hand, the tragedies of San Salvador Atenco and Juarez highlight the need for this bill, for professional training and capacity building in the Mexican police. On the other hand, they remind us that the problems of human rights abuses, impunity, and corruption is deeply rooted. 

    The human rights safeguards that have been written into this bill, particularly in sections 114, 301, and 503, can be a tool for reforming the Mexican police in most of these regards. But we should put this out there right now: this committee is going to have to be energetic in exercising Congressional oversight on these safeguards. 

    This bill answers a serious need, and I support it, but the human rights failings of the Mexican police are also serious, and we on this committee are going to have hold everyone’s feet to the fire to ensures that the bill’s human rights safeguards are respected and the Merida initiative funds police reforms, not police abuses.