Violence in Mexico

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month, Americans were riveted by news that infamous drug lord Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo, had escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico.

It took this spectacular movie-style breakout to return Mexico and its drug cartels to our national attention, and that is a problem.

When ruthless, barbaric criminals terrorize an innocent population halfway around the world, America notices. We rightly rise up as one to decry the horrific violence perpetrated by ISIL in Syria and Iraq, recoiling in horror at the news of rapes, beheadings, and savagery run amok; yet, when similar violence is visited upon an innocent population in our own backyard, why are we not similarly outraged?

Earlier this year, Aide Nava was beheaded by ruthless thugs not halfway around the world, but in the Mexican state of Guerrero, less than 1,000 miles from the U.S. border. Ms. Nava's death was not an isolated incident, nor was it random. She was a candidate for mayor of her town. Her husband had been mayor until last year, when he was assassinated.

A note found near her body warned of similar treatment for other politicians who did not fall in line and was signed ``Los Rojos,'' the name of one of Guerrero's largest criminal organizations.

If violence in the state of Guerrero sounds familiar, it should. In the town of Iguala in Guerrero, just last year, 43 students engaged in a peaceful protest were kidnapped, murdered, and cremated in a mass grave.

Those 43 are but a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of Mexicans who have been murdered by Mexican drug cartels over the last decade, including at least four candidates and more than a dozen campaign workers during this year's midterm elections. Disturbingly, violence against women in particular has skyrocketed, and the rate at which women are murdered in Mexico is now double the global average.

Meanwhile, a cowed and corrupt leadership seems powerless to stop any of this and may even be actively abetting the violence.

We know that drug use in the United States has regrettably contributed to the conditions that have allowed this violence to spread. The money that fuels the drug cartels comes in large part from narcotics sales north of the Rio Grande.

Just as the drugs flow north, the guns flow south. I have addressed this Chamber in support of legislation countering the sale of guns through ``straw purchasers,'' which are then sent across the border.

This mutually destructive trade of guns and drugs cannot be allowed to continue unabated. More sensible treatment of drug addiction at home and more commonsense gun laws would not only help our own country, but also reduce chaos in the neighborhood.

The U.S. has done much to assist Mexico in countering cartel violence, primarily through the Merida Initiative, a counterdrug and anticrime assistance package.

Since 2008, we have provided Mexico with over $2.5 billion for the Merida Initiative, whose strategy focuses on disrupting criminal groups, institutionalizing the rule of law, creating a 21st century border, and building strong and resilient communities.

The reforms or money supports have been painfully slow in coming. It is still the case that only 25 percent of the crimes in Mexico are reported, fewer than 5 percent are investigated, and fewer than 2 percent ultimately move to trial and sentencing.

The problem in Mexico is not simply a lack of resources; it appears to be a lack of will. The active presence of corruption and official collusion squelches free speech, causing citizens to fear their elected officials, allowing the rule of law to fail.

Those 43 murdered students appear to have been killed with the knowledge and participation of the local police force on orders from Iguala's mayor and his wife. It is a dramatic story, but not unusual one, a story of corruption and impunity in officialdom.

Sadly, those who tell the story, including journalists, human rights activists, and even brave victims willing to speak out, too often meet fates similar to the students of Iguala.

Indeed, within the last months, three journalists have been murdered in three different Mexican states, joining the tragic toll of more than 50 Mexican journalists killed or disappeared since 2007.

I wish, Mr. Speaker, I stood before you today with a simple solution to these problems. I do not. But I do know that the struggle of the Mexican people for a peaceful, safe, and well-governed nation is our struggle as well. They must know that we are paying attention and that we recognize that Mexico's problems are also our own.

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