Senator Feinstein Seeks to Suspend Certification Process With Mexico for a Year
- Hopes to see increased cooperation in battle against narcotics -
September 8, 2000

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today cosponsored legislation to suspend the annual certification process with Mexico for a year in the hope of seeing increased cooperation between Mexico and the United States in the battle against narcotics.

The legislation was introduced by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas). Other cosponsors include Senators Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). The following is Senator Feinstein’s statement:

“Mr. President, I rise today to offer my support to the legislation introduced by my distinguished colleague from Texas, Senator Hutchison. Essentially, this bill would – for one year only – suspend the certification process with respect to Mexico.

It is my hope that this one-year hiatus will be viewed as a sign of good faith between our nations, and that our two countries will dramatically increase the level of our cooperation in the coming year. The problem of drugs is as serious as any we face, and only with a true partnership with Mexico and other source countries can we hope to succeed in the battle against illegal narcotics.

Mr. President, let me be very clear – my support for this legislation this year should not be taken as a sign that I am any less concerned with the rampant corruption and increasingly serious problem of illegal narcotics flowing from Mexico into the United States. I sincerely hope that President-elect Fox and the government of Mexico will with innovation and commitment launch a new and effective war against the cartels that are currently of unparalleled strength and viciousness.

The Zedillo Administration has made some progress in cooperating with the United States in this fight. For instance, the Zedillo Administration:

• Allowed, for the first time, the extradition of two Mexican Nationals on drug charges – although these were lower level participants in the drug trade. This is a beginning, but just that – there is still a long way to go;
• Fired more than 1400 of 3500 federal police officers for corruption; and so far, more than 350 officers have been prosecuted;
• Cooperated with the FBI late last year in an investigation on Mexican soil.
• And greatly increased seizures of illegal narcotics.

On the other hand, not nearly enough has been done:

• Mexico is still the conduit to as much as 70% of the cocaine consumed in the United States (much of it originating in Colombia);
• Mexico supplies the majority of marijuana to the U.S., and, according to the United States Forest Service, Mexican cartels are now sending people across the border to grow marijuana in our national forests and on other federal lands;
• Despite recent successes in disrupting methamphetamine production in Mexico, the meth cartels are now increasingly setting up meth labs in the United States;
• To date, not one major drug kingpin of Mexican nationality has yet been extradited to this country, nor has a major kingpin even been arrested, with the exception of the Amezcua brothers, currently in jail, while the Mexican government decides whether to extradite. Until the cartel leaders are arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned, there can be no real improvement.

In the meantime, Mexican drug cartels are becoming ever more vicious. Tijuana, for instance recently saw its second police chief gunned down in less than 6 years, as dozens of judges, prosecutors and drug agents have been killed in Tijuana alone in recent years.

Last April, the bodies of two Mexican drug agents and a special prosecutor for the Mexican Attorney General’s anti-narcotics unit were found in such a mangled state that identification – even by the spouse of one of the agents – was impossible. According to press accounts, one investigator who saw the photographs of the crime scene said “They told me it was a body. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

The Arellano Felix organization is responsible for many of these crimes. They hold such a strong grip over their community that former DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine recently said that “in Tijuana and Baja, they have become more powerful than the instruments of government in Mexico.”

"The Arellano Felix cartel operates with an estimated one million dollars in bribe money every day. With that money they pay law enforcement to look the other way, prosecutors to leave them alone, judges to let them go free, and for information about their enemies.

"This leads to the largest single threat in this war against drugs – the level of corruption within Mexican law enforcement and even extending into this country. Honest law enforcement officers cannot know who to trust. Anyone who gets too close to capturing cartel members is subject to exposure and assassination. And the cycle of corruption and failure continues.

"The corruption is evident at all levels of Mexican law enforcement, and this is a problem that can only be solved through a concerted, comprehensive effort on the part of the Fox Administration.

"Until the history of corruption is reversed and the drug cartels are brought to justice, this nation will have no respite from the scourge of drugs flowing across our borders.

"I co-sponsor this legislation today as an experiment to see that, if by putting aside the contentiousness of a certification debate next March, there can be a new, more productive process. I will follow this closely. If reports do not reflect substantial, positive change, we will know clearly that decertification may be the only course. I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.”