ALLEGED "KINGPINS" CHARGED RELATED TO IMPORT OF 1,000 KILOGRAMS OF HEROIN FROM MEXICO

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Alleged Drug Kingpins Charged with Multi-State Operation That Imported 1,000 Kilograms of Heroin from Mexico into the United States

A 108-count superseding indictment unsealed today charges 37 people (see chart) as participants in a multi-state heroin trafficking organization with ties to Mexico.  The charges, which include conducting a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to commit money laundering, 62 counts of money laundering and 43 substantive drug charges, were announced by U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Special Agent-in-Charge Gary Tuggle for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Members of the Laredo Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) are charged with the distribution and attempted distribution of multi-kilogram quantities of heroin in Philadelphia. According to the indictment, since 2008, the Laredo DTO has manufactured and imported heroin from its operation in Mexico and supplied other DTOs in Philadelphia, Chicago Camden, New Jersey,  and elsewhere.

Brothers Antonio and Ismael Laredo, the alleged leaders of the Laredo DTO, are charged with engagement in a continuing criminal enterprise.  They allegedly supervised 21 defendants who are charged with participation in a conspiracy to import heroin from Mexico into the United States and conspiracy to distribute kilogram quantities of heroin manufactured in and smuggled from Mexico into the United States.  According to the superseding indictment, the Laredo DTO smuggled-in from Mexico approximately 1,000 kilograms of heroin using various concealment techniques including placing kilogram quantities of heroin in car batteries, car bumpers, concealed vehicle traps and sealed fruit and vegetable cans.  Antonio and Ismael Laredo allegedly recruited and hired couriers in the United States to transport and deliver multi-kilogram shipments of heroin, originating in Mexico, to heroin distributors affiliated with the Laredo DTO located in Philadelphia, Camden, New Jersey, Chicago, Atlanta, and New York, New York.  Defendant Antonio Marcelo Barragan allegedly served as a Mexican-based supplier of raw opium.  Defendant Alejandro Sotelo allegedly served as a stash house operator and distributor of the DTO’s product in Chicago, where he arranged trans-shipment of multi-kilogram quantities of heroin to Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.

It is further alleged that the Laredo DTO supplied street level heroin bagging and packaging operations in Philadelphia; that heroin, in quantities ranging from 15 to 50 kilograms at a time was regularly moved between the Chicago, operation and the Philadelphia operation; and that members of the DTO, including the Laredo brothers, used violence, such as assaults and kidnapping, threats of violence, including murder and arson and firearms to protect the DTO’s product and proceeds and to prevent members from withdrawing from the organization.  The indictment alleges that the Laredo DTO supplied multi-kilogram quantities of heroin to other drug traffickers in the Philadelphia area, including the (Christian) Serrano DTO, charged elsewhere, the (Darbin and Gabriel) Vargas DTO and the Camden, New Jersey, based (Confesor) Montalvo organization, among others.

According to the indictment, members of the Laredo DTO would transport heroin shipments by various means, including car and train.  In 2012, a courier concealed three kilograms of heroin inside a car battery for transport from Mexico to Philadelphia; another shipment of four kilograms was concealed inside a car speaker box; a shipment of 7.6 kilograms of heroin was concealed in sealed fruit and vegetable cans in Texas and the couriers were directed to deliver the heroin to defendants Darbin Vargas and Gabriel Vargas, of the Vargas DTO in Philadelphia, in September 2012.  The indictment alleges that the Laredo brothers arranged for the manufacture and production of car batteries in Mexico containing concealed compartments to hold multiple kilograms of heroin which were then used to surreptitiously import heroin into the United States.

The indictment further alleges that the Laredo brothers had numerous relatives and associates set up “funnel accounts” that were used for the purpose of laundering the proceeds of the drug operation back to Mexico.  According to the indictment, using a variety of money laundering techniques, including the use of the funnel accounts, wire transfers of funds and Western Union money grams, the DTO was able to launder at least $5 million of its heroin proceeds back to Mexico, where the Laredo brothers resided.  It was further a part of the conspiracy that the Laredo brothers directed defendant Osmar Flores, doing business as Tri-Country Auto Sales Inc. in Rockford, Illinois, to collect and deposit large sums of cash representing proceeds of the Laredo DTO's heroin trafficking sales in the U.S. to the business bank account of Tri Country Auto Sales Inc.  Portions of those funds were allegedly used to purchase multiple vehicles used to transport heroin from Mexico and bulk U.S. currency from the United States to Mexico, in concealed compartments.  In addition, defendant Osmar Flores transmitted proceeds of the heroin operation back to the Laredos, both by wire transfers and bulk transfers of cash.

“This indictment and the arrests this morning are a significant victory in our efforts to combat drug trafficking,” said U.S. Attorney Memeger.  “Because of the persistent and collaborative efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies across the country, a major supplier of heroin to the Philadelphia region is out of business.”

“Heroin is the top enforcement priority of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Philadelphia Field Division,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Tuggle.  “Dismantling this extremely violent international drug trafficking organization ended the flow of hundreds of kilograms of Mexican based heroin into the Philadelphia region and is a direct result of DEA’s resolve to make our communities safer.  This was a cooperative effort with local, state and federal agencies.  The flow of Mexican produced heroin into southeast Pennsylvania has been significantly impacted.”

If convicted, the Laredo brothers each face a mandatory sentence of life in prison, tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, as well as a criminal forfeiture judgment to the United States of up to $60 million; most of the remaining drug trafficking defendants face mandatory minimum sentences of at least 10 years in prison (see attached chart).

The case was investigated by the  DEA’s offices in Philadelphia, Camden, New Jersey, Mexico City, Mexico, Chicago and Rockford, Illinois, Newark, New Jersey, New York, New York, Tyler, Texas, Raleigh, North Carolina, Jefferson City and St. Louis, Missouri, Richmond, Virginia, and the DEA Special Operations Division; FBI in Philadelphia; U.S. Marshal Service; Homeland Security Investigations in Philadelphia and Richmond, Virginia; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the Philadelphia Police Department; Darby Borough Police Department; SEPTA Transit Police Department; Berks County District Attorney’s Office; Bucks County District Attorney’s Office in New Jersey; the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, Parole Board, Cherry Hill Police Department, Delaware River Port Authority Police, Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, Camden County Sherriff’s Office; in Illinois: Rockford Police Department, Will County Sheriff's Department, Skokie Police Department, Aurora Police Department, Oak Lawn Police Department, Addison Police Department, Prospect Heights Police Department, Chicago Police Department, Arlington Heights Police Department, West Chicago Police Department, Cook County Sheriff's Department and McHenry County Narcotics Task Force; in Texas: Texas Department of Safety, CID Mt. Pleasant, Mt. Pleasant Police Department; in Missouri: Missouri State Highway Patrol, Audrain County Sheriff’s Department, East Central Drug Task Force; in Virginia: the Mecklenberg County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office and the Virginia State Police; and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina.  Assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Northern District of Illinois and the Eastern District of Virginia.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joseph T. Labrum III.

TOM MALINOWSKI ON REMARKS IN MEXICO CITY ON ACCESS TO JUSTICE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Public Safety and Access to Justice
Remarks
Tom Malinowski
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Open Government Partnership Steering Committee Ministerial
Mexico City, Mexico
April 23, 2015

As prepared for delivery

Thank you all for having me here. This is a timely gathering. Public safety and access to justice are high priority issues in the minds of many civil society representatives in the United States and, I should say, in the minds of American citizens generally. It is no secret that the conduct of law enforcement has been a headline issue for us this last year. In the United States, we believe that an informed and engaged civil society is essential to ensuring that government faithfully discharges its duties to protect its citizens, to guarantee human rights, and to hold itself and its officials accountable for their actions. We know that we’re not perfect. But we are committed to improvement and to upholding institutions that allow us to address our shortcomings. In this spirit, we’re looking forward to sharing ideas and best practices so that we can all build, or restore, trust between people and their government.

Because in countries where citizens lack trust and confidence in their government, where they do not feel enfranchised in decisions affecting their lives, there are a range of costs. Some can be drawn to violent extremism, others to gangs and crime. Corruption is more likely to increase; police and judicial power more likely to be abused. Basic services are distributed unjustly. Innovation and entrepreneurship are stifled as elites focus their power on maintaining a status quo that enables their unjust enrichment. In such societies, the state may seem like it’s growing stronger at the expense of civil society, but in fact institutions that lose the trust of their people often turn out to be hollow. They are strong until the day they are not; they create turmoil and instability that affects their neighbors and the world.

OGP points the way to an alternative, to creating a space where government and civil society can work together – to build trust and to ensure transparent, accountable, citizen-enabled and innovation-powered governance. Last September, President Obama challenged us to support civil society at home and abroad. The strength and success of nations depends, the President has said, on allowing citizens to solve problems without government interference, and on robust engagement between governments and civil society to advance shared goals.

One of OGP’s grand challenges, around which participants are encouraged to develop commitments, is “Promoting Safer Communities.” This is the most undersubscribed of OGP’s grand challenges, yet it is one of the most critical challenges facing countries in every corner of the world, in part because civilian insecurity can express itself in so many different ways—in gang violence and organized crime, in violent extremism, or officials who are complicit in corruption and human rights violations. Across a range of countries and communities, the security and justice sectors may be simply inadequate in creating secure conditions, guaranteeing access to justice, and protecting against human rights abuses. This creates space for crime and extremism to flourish and limits the potential for individual opportunity and economic growth. And ultimately, the persistence of these conditions can undermine the stability of the political system itself.

There is growing interest among civil society organizations in increasing OGP’s focus on this challenge area, and related issues such as access to justice and the promotion and protection of human rights. Transparency International’s new initiative on Safer Communities in Latin America is one example of how civil society and governments can work toward common goals – and I hope Cecilia will be able to share some of the ideas of this groundbreaking effort. With such examples in mind, we are hoping to start a discussion to explore how OGP can help advance the community security challenge.

In my country, events of the past year have called us to take a fresh look at questions of public safety, access to justice, and the need to strengthen police-community relations. In Ferguson, Missouri, public demonstrations and civil society interventions drew the nation’s attention to the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown and to concerns about the practices of the Ferguson Police Department. In addition to opening civil and criminal investigations, our Department of Justice sent mediators to create a dialogue between police, city officials, and residents to reduce tension in the community. In addition, DOJ is involved in a voluntary, independent, and objective assessment of the St. Louis County Police Department, looking at training, use of force, handling of mass demonstrations, and other areas where reform may be needed.

As President Obama has said, “[t]he fact is, in too many parts of (the United States), a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color.” At the President’s request, the Attorney General convened roundtable discussions among law enforcement, elected officials, and community members in six cities in December 2014 and January 2015. The President also appointed a Task Force on 21st Century Policing, made up of governmental and civil society members, which engaged a wide range of state, local, and tribal officials; subject matter experts; and community and faith leaders to develop a series of recommendations on how to strengthen public trust and foster strong relationships between local law enforcement and the communities they protect.

As we continue to strive for what our founding fathers termed “a more perfect union,” we encourage you both to make suggestions to us on what has worked for you in addressing such challenges and to consider what in this example may work in your country contexts.

We also want to hear your thoughts on how this set of issues manifests in different regions and countries. How, in your experience, do open government initiatives strengthen public safety and access to justice? Are there ways for OGP to encourage more countries to commit to improvements in this area? And if we consider access to justice and promotion and protection of human rights core parts of the open government agenda, should we build more robust evaluations into the IRM assessment? Finally, we need to come out of this session with more than great thoughts. We invite your specific recommendations on how OGP can empower citizens to play a role in ensuring accountability in the security and justice sectors.

It’s a lot to think about so with that, I’d like to turn to Cecilia for her remarks before we open up the floor for discussion.

U.S.-MEXICO ISSUE STATEMENT ON CLIMATE POLICY COOPERATION

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE
March 27, 2015
Joint Statement on U.S.-Mexico Climate Policy Cooperation

On the occasion of Mexico submitting its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), President Barack Obama and President Enrique Peña Nieto reaffirm their commitment to addressing global climate change, one of the greatest threats facing humanity. The leaders underscore the importance of jointly addressing climate in their integrated economy. Smart action on climate change and developing clean energy can drive economic growth, and bring broad security, health, and development benefits to the region. The two countries will seize every opportunity to harmonize their efforts and policies towards their common climate goals. The two countries will launch a new high-level bilateral clean energy and climate policy task force to further deepen policy and regulatory coordination in specific areas including clean electricity, grid modernization, appliance standards, and energy efficiency, as well as promoting more fuel efficient automobile fleets in both countries, global and regional climate modeling, weather forecasting and early alerts system. The interagency task force will be chaired by Secretary Ernest Moniz and Secretary Juan José Guerra Abud, and hold its first meeting this spring. The task force will also look to advance its work program through the Clean Energy Ministerial that Mexico is hosting on May 27-28 and related initiatives. Both countries also commit to enhanced cooperation on air quality and climate policy, including harmonization and implementation of heavy-duty diesel and light duty emission standards, common programs to reduce reliance on HFCs, and technical cooperation on black carbon.

FORMER LUFTHANSA SUBSIDIARY CEO PLEADS GUILTY TO FOREIGN BRIBERY CHARGES

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Former Chief Executive Officer of Lufthansa Subsidiary BizJet Pleads Guilty to Foreign Bribery Charges

The former president and chief executive officer of BizJet International Sales and Support Inc., a U.S.-based subsidiary of Lufthansa Technik AG with headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that provides aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services, pleaded guilty today for his participation in a scheme to pay bribes to foreign government officials.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams Sr., of the Northern District of Oklahoma and Assistant Director in Charge Valerie Parlave of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement.

“The former CEO of BizJet, Bernd Kowalewski, has become the third and most senior Bizjet executive to plead guilty to bribing officials in Mexico and Panama to get contracts for aircraft services,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell.  “While Kowalewski and his fellow executives referred to the corrupt payments as ‘commissions’ and ‘incentives,’ they were bribes, plain and simple.  Though he was living abroad when the charges were unsealed, the reach of the law extends beyond U.S. borders, resulting in Kowalewski’s arrest in Amsterdam and his appearance in court today in the United States.  Today’s guilty plea is an example of our continued determination to hold corporate executives responsible for criminal wrongdoing whenever the evidence allows.”

“I commend the investigators and prosecutors who worked together across borders and jurisdictions to vigorously enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” said U.S. Attorney Williams.  “Partnership is a necessity in all investigations. By forging and strengthening international partnerships to combat bribery, the Department of Justice is advancing its efforts to prevent crime and to protect citizens.”

Bernd Kowalewski, 57, the former President and CEO of BizJet, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and a substantive violation of the FCPA in connection with a scheme to pay bribes to officials in Mexico and Panama in exchange for those officials’ assistance in securing contracts for BizJet to perform aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services.

Kowalewski was arrested on a provisional arrest warrant by authorities in Amsterdam on March 13, 2014, and waived extradition on June 20, 2014.   Kowalewski is the third BizJet executive to plead guilty in this case.   Peter DuBois, the former Vice President of Sales and Marketing, pleaded guilty on Jan. 5, 2012, to conspiracy to violate the FCPA and a substantive violation of the FCPA and Neal Uhl, the former Vice President of Finance, pleaded guilty on Jan. 5, 2012, to conspiracy to violate the FCPA.   Jald Jensen, the former sales manager at BizJet, has been indicted for conspiracy as well as substantive FCPA violations and money laundering and is believed to be living abroad.   Charges were unsealed against the four defendants on April 5, 2013.

According to court filings, Kowalewski and his co-conspirators paid bribes directly to foreign officials to secure aircraft maintenance repair and overhaul contracts, and in some instances, the defendants funneled bribes to foreign officials through a shell company owned and operated by Jensen.   The shell company, Avionica International & Associates Inc., operated under the pretense of providing aircraft maintenance brokerage services but in reality laundered money related to BizJet’s bribery scheme.   Bribes were paid to officials employed by the Mexican Policia Federal Preventiva, the Mexican Coordinacion General de Transportes Aereos Presidenciales, the air fleet for the Gobierno del Estado de Sinaloa, the air fleet for the Gobierno del Estado de Sonora and the Republica de Panama Autoridad Aeronautica Civil.

Further according to court filings, the co-conspirators discussed in e-mail correspondence and at corporate meetings the need to pay bribes, which they referred to internally as “commissions” or “incentives,” to officials employed by the foreign government agencies in order to secure the contracts.   At one meeting, for example, in response to a question about who the decision-maker was at a particular customer organization, DuBois stated that a director of maintenance or chief pilot was normally responsible for decisions on where an aircraft went for maintenance work.   Kowalewski then responded by explaining that the directors of maintenance and chief pilots in the past received “commissions” of $3,000 to $5,000 but were now demanding $30,000 to $40,000 in “commissions.”   Similarly, in e-mail correspondence between Uhl, DuBois, Kowalewski, and several others, Uhl responded to a question about BizJet’s financial outlook if “incentives” paid to brokers, directors of maintenance, or chief pilots continued to increase industry wide, stating that they would “work to build these fees into the revenue as much as possible.   We must remain competitive in this respect to maintain and gain market share.”

On March 14, 2012, the department announced that it had entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with BizJet, requiring that BizJet pay an $11.8 million monetary penalty to resolve charges related to the corrupt conduct.   That agreement acknowledged BizJet’s voluntary disclosure, extraordinary cooperation, and extensive remediation in this case.   In addition, the department announced on March 14, 2012, that BizJet’s indirect parent company, Lufthansa Technik AG, entered into an agreement with the department in which the department agreed not to prosecute Lufthansa Technik provided that Lufthansa Technik satisfies its obligations under the agreement for a period of three years.

This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office with substantial assistance form the Oklahoma Field Office.   The department has worked closely with its law enforcement counterparts in Amsterdam, Mexico and Panama, and has received significant assistance from Germany and Uruguay.   The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs has also provided assistance.   This case is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief Daniel S. Kahn and Trial Attorney David Fuhr of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Leitch of the Northern District of Oklahoma.

DOJ ANNOUNCES "NEW PRIORITIES" TO DEAL WITH MIGRANT BORDER CROSSING SURGE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Department of Justice Announces New Priorities to Address Surge of Migrants Crossing into the U.S.

Justice Department Proposes Establishing Legal and Law Enforcement Advisors to Aid in Disrupting and Dismantling Immigrant Smuggling Operations
Deputy Attorney General James Cole announced today that the Justice Department will implement a series of steps to help address the influx of migrants crossing the southern border of the United States.  These include refocusing immigration court resources to adjudicate the cases of recent migrants; providing support and training to help address violence in Central America; and redoubling efforts to work with other federal agencies and the Mexican government to investigate and prosecute those who smuggle migrants to the United States.

“Individuals who embark on the perilous journey from Central America to the United States are subject to violent crime, abuse, and extortion as they rely on dangerous human smuggling networks to transport them through Central America and Mexico,” Deputy Attorney General Cole said.  “We have an obligation to provide humanitarian care for children and adults with children who are apprehended on our borders, but we also must do whatever we can to stem the tide of this dangerous migration pattern.  The efforts we are announcing today are intended to address the challenges of this influx in a humane, efficient and timely way.”

Cole announced that the department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) will refocus its resources to prioritize cases involving migrants who have recently crossed the southwest border and whom DHS has placed into removal proceedings -- so that these cases are processed both quickly and fairly to enable prompt removal in appropriate cases, while ensuring the protection of asylum seekers and others.

“This refocusing of resources will allow EOIR to prioritize the adjudication of the cases of those individuals involved in the evolving situation at the southwest border,” said EOIR Director Juan P. Osuna.  “Although our case management priorities are shifting, our immigration judges will continue to evaluate and rule upon cases consistent with all substantive and procedural rights and safeguards applicable to immigration proceedings.”
         
To augment its capacity to adjudicate cases as promptly as possible, EOIR is committed to hiring more immigration judges.  EOIR this week will also publish a regulation allowing for the appointment of temporary immigration judges.  Further, EOIR plans both to expand its existing legal access programs, and enhance access to legal resources and assistance for persons in removal proceedings.

Cole also announced that the Department is seeking new funding, as a part of the President’s emergency supplemental appropriations request, to assist Central American countries in combatting transnational crime and the threat posed by criminal gangs.  This regional strategy for law enforcement capacity building would be aimed at addressing the issues that have been a factor in forcing many migrants to flee Central America for the United States.

The department will also redouble its efforts to work with Mexican authorities to identify and apprehend smugglers who are aiding unaccompanied children in crossing the U.S. border.  Later this week, the Deputy Attorney General will also be meeting with the five U.S. Attorneys who represent the southwest border districts to strategize on ways to disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations on the border that are facilitating the transportation of unaccompanied minors and others.

Today, Deputy Attorney General Cole will go to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s McAllen Station and processing facility to see the urgent situation at the border.  EOIR Director Osuna will be testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to highlight the Justice Department’s efforts to aid in the administration-wide response to the migrant influx.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BROWNFIELD'S CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY ON NARCOTICS AND U.S.-MEXICO RELATIONS

FROM:  THE STATE DEPARTMENT 

The Future of U.S.-Mexico Relations

Testimony

William R. Brownfield

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

Statement Before the House Foreign Affairs Committee

Washington, DC

May 20, 2014

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Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here today to discuss our important partnership with the Government of Mexico. Through this unprecedented partnership forged between our two governments over the past seven years, great progress has been made in strengthening the capacity of Mexico’s justice sector to counter organized crime and protect our shared border. And working in partnership with the Peña Nieto administration, we are continuing our strong collaborative efforts with the Government of Mexico to advance our shared citizen security objectives.
In 2008, at the start of the Merida Initiative, drug cartel-related violence in Mexico had been increasing dramatically, corruption was a threat to rule of law, and Mexican institutions were not able to deal effectively with the impunity of these powerful criminal networks. The people of Mexico had little confidence in their institutions, and the unmitigated flow of illicit money and narcotics clouded the prospects of Mexico’s licit economy. In 2008, Mexico took the important first step of passing constitutional reforms to overhaul its entire justice sector including the police, judicial system, and corrections at the federal, state and local levels. Mexico’s institutional reforms and its objective of building strong institutions that its citizens can depend on to deliver justice provided a foundation for U.S. cooperation.

Since 2008, our assistance under the Merida Initiative has helped advance Mexico’s implementation of these reforms. To date, the U.S. government has delivered approximately $1.2 billion worth of training, capacity building, and equipment. By no means do we go it alone: the Government of Mexico has contributed billions of its own resources, outpacing our own, to our shared security goals. And because our assistance is designed jointly with the Government of Mexico, many programs form integral parts of Mexico’s justice sector reforms and enjoy a high level of sustainability.

Our partnership with Mexico has demonstrated results, through it we have: helped advance the transition to the accusatory justice system through the training of over 8,500 federal justice sector personnel; augmented the professionalization of police units by providing training to more than 22,000 federal and state police officers, 4,000 of which are federal investigators; improved the capacity and security of its federal prisons, supporting the expansion of secure federal facilities from five with a capacity of 3,500 to 14 with a capacity of 20,000; provided civic education and ethics training to more than 700,000 Mexican students; and improved the detection of narcotics, arms, and money at the border, reaching nearly $3.8 billion in illicit goods seized. In addition, since 2009, Mexico has apprehended more than 70 senior and mid-level drug trafficking organization (DTO) leaders, notably Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, significantly disrupting all major Mexican DTOs. These are noteworthy outputs that, with continued collaboration and political commitment, will help enhance security for citizens on both sides of the border.

The Initiative continues to be structured around the four pillar framework: 1) Disrupting the operational capacity of organized crime; 2) Institutionalizing Mexico’s capacity to sustain the rule of law and protect human rights; 3) Creating a 21^st century border; and 4) Building strong and resilient communities. This framework, combined with the shift toward training and an emphasis on building capacity at the state and local level, is the basis for our security cooperation with the Peña Nieto Administration going forward.

When President Peña Nieto took office in December 2012, he and his Administration took a close and deliberate look at the U.S.-Mexico bilateral relationship, including our security cooperation. After a careful review, the Government of Mexico has committed to continuing our collaboration on security issues under the four-pillar Merida framework, with a sharper focus on crime prevention and rule of law. The Peña Nieto Administration has laid out its long-term plans for improving citizen security through its ten-point security strategy that includes crime prevention and effective criminal justice, police professionalization, transforming the prison system, promoting citizen participation and international coordination on security, transparent statistics on crime rates, coordination among government authorities and regionalization to focus efforts, and strengthening of intelligence to combat crime. These elements track well with the planning and direction of the work that I manage, International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) programming, which aims to help build professionalized and credible civilian security.

In recent months, we have reached agreement with the Government of Mexico on areas of programmatic focus for our security cooperation under Merida. We have launched a robust process for getting security assistance programs green lighted that consists of joint executive level meetings between INL Mexico and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) and the Ministry of Government (SEGOB). Since November 2013, 78 projects, totaling more than $430 million have been approved through this process. These projects span all four pillars of Merida with a focus on bilateral priority areas – assistance to the states in law enforcement capacity building, support to the Government of Mexico’s efforts on its southern border strategy, and justice sector reform.

In seeking to further justice sector reform, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) has demonstrated commitment to advancing the transition to the accusatory justice system and recently agreed to several programs supporting this transition at the federal and state level. We will continue building the skills of prosecutors, investigators, and experts, enhancing the technical capacity of courtrooms throughout the country to handle oral trials, and helping to train law school students in crucial oral trial skills. Additionally we are working with the PGR’s criminal investigation arm, akin to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, to enhance its human and technological capacity to pursue complex investigations.

To help Mexico build policing capacity for its communities, we are putting in place the building blocks to expand police training to the state and municipal level. We have strengthened police academies in the states of Chihuahua, Sonora, Nuevo Leon, and Puebla, enabling them to serve as the backbone for training programs and to conduct regional training. We are building our joint state training program around this regional structure but expanding it to reach all of Mexico’s 31 states and the Federal District. Some programs will be regional in their application, enhancing cooperation between law enforcement officials in neighboring states as they implement reforms. Contending with transnational crime and violence against communities takes collaboration and partnerships. And that is why, in addition to regional training academies, we are supporting task forces at the state level to better develop and share police intelligence, augmenting local capacity to combat criminal organizations.

Building on the Peña Nieto Administration’s agenda for police professionalization, we will work with the Government of Mexico to enhance and professionalize existing law enforcement institutions to develop federal standards for Mexican officials in the areas of recruitment, training, discipline and promotion. Drawing upon expertise here at home, U.S. Federal, state, and local partners will help to advise their Mexican counterparts on policing standards and best practices, and facilitate regional working groups that integrate state, local, and federal entities. Police professionalization, greater observance of civil and human rights, and greater trust among the Mexican public in its police will result.

Greater border security capacity, along Mexico’s northern and southern borders is also a significant bilateral priority. Our governments have committed to further enhancing the Government of Mexico’s ability to interdict illicit narcotics, arms, and money as well as strengthen control of porous border areas. Using the train the trainer method to multiply the impact of our assistance, we have already provided specialized training for police, military, and Mexican Customs officials that address advanced border security and import/export processing techniques and methodologies. On Mexico’s southern border, we expect that our assistance programs will help to improve communications among Mexican law enforcement, immigration, and community officials, increasing their interoperability and capacity to share information to adapt to evolving criminal tactics. This is important to Mexico’s national security and it is to ours as well. It goes without saying that strengthening Mexico’s capacity to control its border with Belize and Guatemala, which Mexico is already taking steps to do, will improve security on our own southern border.

In addition to new programs that we expect to have underway in the year ahead, we continue to build on the success of several ongoing programs. For example, Mexico’s federal corrections system continues to be a recognized international leader in corrections reform, with eight federal facilities already certified by the independent American Correctional Association. The reforms already underway, including the creation of an objective prisoner classification system and the construction of new facilities, are making great strides. Mexico’s success in reforming the corrections systems at the federal level can serve as the launching point for supporting similar reforms at the state level, where significant challenges remain. We will support Mexico in assessing state facilities and in its efforts to undertake similar reforms at the state level.
We will also continue supporting Mexico’s efforts to improve information sharing among its agencies involved in the fight against money laundering and illicit finance, a priority area for the Peña Nieto administration. Enhanced Mexican interagency coordination will lead to more prosecutions and cash seized. We have already provided funding for the training of the Financial Intelligence Unit’s (FIU) personnel, sophisticated financial analysis software, and the accompanying computer hardware. Given the expanded responsibilities of the FIU under the new anti-money laundering legislation passed in late 2012, we are providing additional support for upgrades and expanding their data center.

Complementary to our assistance at the institutional level, we will also continue to support local communities by promoting behavioral changes for improving rule of law from the ground up, such as through our Culture of Lawfulness program. This program offers a civic education curriculum to schools throughout Mexico, professional ethics education for the federal and state police as well other public officials, and informs citizens on the process for reporting crime and collects feedback on their experience of reporting crime through on-site monitors at local public prosecutors’ offices in Mexico City.

These examples of past, current, and future security collaboration with Mexico are just that, examples. Building strong and able justice sector institutions capable of dealing with organized crime and the accompanying violence and corruption is a difficult and long-term endeavor. It takes years of dedicated and sustained work across numerous institutions and sectors, the political will to affect change, and the resources and stamina to see it through. This is the path toward secure and safe communities and secure and safe economies. Our work with Mexico over the past seven years has achieved far reaching results and I am confident that our collaborative efforts will continue.

Thank you, Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel and other distinguished Members for your time. I look forward to answering any questions you might have.

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS AT CLEAN TECH CHALLENGE TAMAYO MUSEUM, MEXICO

THE STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks at CleanTech Challenge

Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Tamayo Museum

Mexico City, Mexico

May 21, 2014

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SECRETARY KERRY: (Applause.) Muy buenas noches a todos. (Inaudible.) (Laughter.) (Inaudible.) What an enormous pleasure for me to be here. I’m really delighted to be able to join you, and I hope everybody can hear me. Can you all hear? Okay?

AUDIENCE: (Off-mike.)

SECRETARY KERRY: (Inaudible) can hear? (Inaudible.)

Dr. Aguirre-Torres, thank you very, very much. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for bringing everybody together here. And I’m particularly happy to be able to be here as we launch the final round of the 2014 CleanTech Challenge. I’m very grateful to Dr. Torres for the visionary leadership that he has shown, and I’m grateful to all of you who are part of this incredibly important exercise, and I’ll talk a little more about that in a minute. But you all have turned the CleanTech Challenge into the top green business plan competition in all of Latin America, and I think you ought to be very, very proud of that. It’s a pleasure to be joining so many contestants, judges, mentors, innovators, and it’s clear that you are not only lifting Mexico’s economy, but with the successes that are achieved, you are designing things that have the ability to lift other people’s economies.

I had a chance just a little while ago to feast briefly – unfortunately, too briefly – on the historic central square with Diego Rivera’s remarkable murals. And I suppose from the prehistoric[1] palaces of the Aztecs to the Zocalo’s towering cathedral to this museum that we are gathered in today, Mexico has always had a very, very special sense of history, a very special commitment to culture and an extraordinary (inaudible). As much as we admire that past, I am not here to talk about the past, nor are you. Every single person here is fixated on the future, and that’s what we’re here to talk about.

And that’s appropriate. Because today, our global economy is more interconnected than it has ever been or than perhaps any of us might have imagined it might have become as fast as it has. I want to emphasize, the work of diplomacy is not just about our shared security and thinking about borders and terrorism and narcotics and all of those kinds of things. That’s not all that is at stake. It is about creating shared prosperity. And no society is going to survive unless it has a strong foundation of shared prosperity. There are many places in the world, including in my country, where the divide between people at the top and people struggling to get to the middle even is much too big. The way we’re going to deal with this is not through political speeches; it’s going to be through innovation, through hard work, through research, through education, and creating the kind of opportunity that creates the products of the future.
I want to emphasize to everybody here, from the day that I became Secretary of State, President Obama and I have been on a mission to emphasize to people that economics is not some separate component of policy. Foreign policy is economic policy and economic policy is foreign policy. And when you look at the world today, with millions of young people, whole countries where 60, 65 percent in a few cases, but many cases 55 and 60 percent of the young people are under the age of 30, 50 percent are under the age of 21, and 40 percent are under the age of 18. And if we don’t provide jobs and opportunity and education that is the entryway to those jobs and opportunity, we’re all going to have a much tougher time making the world safer. It’s just the bottom line.

So what we’re here to do is now us, together, through the green business design and the planning, is celebrate the idea that you can do things that are good for the broad society even as you do well for yourselves. You can make money and make life better.

I know people who only invest on that basis. They always make a judgment about their investment as to what it’s going to create in terms of community and society. So that’s why competitions like this are really so important. A few minutes ago, I had an opportunity with Aguirre to be able to go in and look at the table that had a few successes on it. And it’s incredible what people are able to do with their imagination in the context of today’s challenges.
So President Obama and I – and this is the part that I want to convey in coming here to Mexico City today – we are deeply committed to elevating our partnership with Mexico on innovation, entrepreneurship, and clean energy.

USAID is a very proud sponsor of the CleanTech Challenge, and our challenge is clear: in the past, we used to trade together. Today, due to trade relationships, we build together. In the future, we want to innovate and invent together. And we believe in the possibilities of a Mexico-U.S. strength with respect to that. If any nation has an ability to be able to drive towards that horizon, we believe it is Mexico. And if there’s one person – I mean, I’ll give you an example. Why do I believe that? Well, go look at the table that I just looked at up there. One of the inventions up there is made by a young man, or comes from the mind of a young man, by the name of Gerardo Patino.

Many of you know Gerardo. He won this competition last year, and his story should be an inspiration to everybody. He grew up in the small mountain town of Tepoztlan. But from an early age, he always had a big idea. And he was – Gerardo wanted to protect the environment. So he left the mountains just south of here and he worked really hard to get a first-class education. And when he graduated, he didn’t just cash in, he didn’t just take the easy path. He was prepared to take risks. He wanted to give back, even if that meant traveling a difficult road.
So he founded Terra Humana – Humans for the Earth. And his goal was to reinvent the way that we use water. Gerardo worked with engineers to develop a new technology that treats water so that plants can absorb it better for agricultural irrigation. And his device was really groundbreaking. But guess what? A lot of entrepreneurs will tell you, it’s not an easy thing to take it from a head to the shelf. It’s not easy always to get it out there into the marketplace. And Gerardo will tell you that, that getting farmers to adopt it was like asking them to believe in magic, he says. He literally had to go door to door, show each farmer, farm to farm, to sell his device. But guess what? Now he’s in the sixth year. His invention has moved from generation to generation, year to year. And it can cut agricultural water use by up to 30 percent.

Gerardo, his story, puts a human face on something that is pretty profound and pretty fundamental: The United States and Mexico are growing clean and growing green together. And never forget that what you’re doing is not hypothetical. It’s not a theory. It’s real. And it matters to the lives of real people.

It absolutely matters that the CleanTech Challenge in Mexico has produced nearly 200 clean technology businesses. It matters that the CleanTech Challenge has created more than 2,500 green jobs. It matters that the hundreds of companies that are engaged in this competition – entrepreneurs just like Gerardo – are on track to slash nearly 22 million metric tons of CO2, greenhouse gases, over the next five years.

Now, there’s an old saying in Mexico, and it’s not one that I know because I’ve been here a long time, but I know it. And I think it’s more appropriate for this occasion: “Aquel que no mira hacia adelante, se queda atras” – “If you don’t look ahead, you’re going to be looking behind.” And I look out at all of you and I think that’s accurate.

The question now is not just whether you’re looking ahead. It’s whether or not you can look ahead and translate what you see into something real that people will be able to use. And the secret to that is the meeting we had earlier this morning with your education leaders and our education leaders. The secret is three words: education, innovation, and conservation.
Now, this morning, we talked a lot about that and we are looking to you, the next generation, for the next big idea. But ideas alone are clearly not going to be enough to be able to get things to the market. You need to link the idea to the market and to a viable business plan, and ultimately find the capital, the finance to be able to go out and take it to the marketplace.

So I think that what we’re building between the U.S. and Mexican educational institutions, through the Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research, is the foundation to be able to take this idea of green business planning and actually turn it into a bigger reality for all of us.

Now, let me just say to all of you, through the Mexico-U.S. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council – MUSEIC – we are bringing together people from the private sector and the public sector in order to test new ideas. And we’re creating an environment where innovation hopefully can flourish. We’re going to create boot camps for young Mexican entrepreneurs and conferences that connect Latin diaspora communities in the United States with entrepreneurs in Mexico.

This is an important effort. And as part of this commitment, we are going to make a $400,000 grant to the University of Texas in Austin so that it can host four technology startup boot camps. And guess what? One of them is going to take place right here in Mexico. We’re also providing $100,000 to bring the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps model to Mexico. And this is going to help provide entrepreneurship training to Mexican scientists and support their efforts to build cutting-edge technology startups.

I’m also particularly proud of our Peace Corps program here in Mexico, which is focused on science, technology, and the environment. I think we have some of our volunteers here, do we? Raise your hands. Peace Corps volunteers, thank you very much for what you are doing. We deeply appreciate it. (Applause.)

So let me try to make this as real as I can. We are educating and innovating. But we really have an urgency about this. Just before I came down here, I caught about 10 minutes in my hotel room and happened to see CNN, and I saw the temperatures around the world right now – the flooding in Serbia, and the incredible storms that are taking place in France and elsewhere. Thirty-four degrees centigrade in Vietnam today, in May. Twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-two, thirty-three in places all around Europe. Unprecedented. Breaks every record that’s ever been seen. What we are seeing around the world is what scientists have predicted. They’re not telling us that we may see global climate change. We are seeing it, and we’re seeing the impacts now. And we are closer and closer to a time where the tipping point that they’ve warned us about is going to be reached. It’s becoming more and more dangerous. All you have to do is look at the last two reports, and particularly the IPCC report of the United Nations, with 97 percent of the scientists of the world warning us about the devastating impact of global climate change if we don’t take action -- and take serious action – soon.

Now, I’d just say to all of you: What is the solution to climate change? It’s very simple. It’s energy policy. Energy policy is the solution to climate change. We have to stop providing energy to buildings, to automobiles, airplanes, houses, electricity plants, with fuel that we know is creating more and more of the problem in a compounded fashion. Fossil fuel coal-fired power plant, so forth.

And I ask you just to think about the possibilities. The marketplace that made America particularly wealthy in the 1990s – a lot of people don’t focus on this. The United States got wealthier in the 1990s than we got during the Gilded Age, during the Rockefellers, Morgans, Pierponts, Fricks, all of that period of no taxes. People got wealthier in the 1990s. And they did it with a $1 trillion market that served 1 billion users – one and one.
The energy market that we are staring at today is right now, today, a $6 trillion market with 4 to 5 billion users, and it’s going to grow to 9 billion users by about 2035, with about $17 trillion of expenditure and maybe more – who knows? So the bottom line is this: The countries, the people, the individuals who design the means of providing that clean, alternative, renewable, sustainable energy are the people who are going to help save the Earth, life itself, as well as help their countries to do enormously better.

And I would just close by saying to all of you, there’s still a debate in some places about why we ought to do it or whether it’s real – amazingly. But let me ask you something. If we do what you know you can do as entrepreneurs, as scientists, as innovators, if we do it, and if we were wrong about the science – which I don’t believe we are, but if we were – and we move to new and sustainable energy, what is the worst thing that could happen to us? The worst thing is we would create millions of new jobs; we would transition to cleaner energy, which hopefully would be homegrown, which makes every country much more secure; we would have cleaner air, which would mean we have less hospitalization for children for asthma and people with particulates causing cancer; and we would have greater energy security for everybody and independence as a result. That’s the worst that could happen.

What’s the worst that happens if the other guys are wrong, the people who don’t want to move in this direction? Catastrophe. Lack of water. Lack of capacity to grow food in many parts of the world. Refugees for climate. People fighting wars over water. Devastation in terms of sea-level rise. We’re already seeing it in the Pacific.

So I’d just close by saying to all of you, this is an important meeting. This is an important initiative. This is how we have a chance to define the future, and this is how Mexico and the United States can do it together – by innovating, conserving, and educating. This is one big challenge.

It was the great Mexican novelist Octavio Paz who said: “Deserve your dream.” Well, I think everybody here deserves it. The question is now: Are we going to go get it? Are we going to live it? That’s what this is about. And I hope, together, we’re going to redefine the future.
Thank you all very, very much.

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[1] pre-Hispanic

REMARKS BY SECRETARY KERRY AND MEXICAN FOREIGN SECRETARY MEADE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Remarks With Mexican Foreign Secretary Jose Antonio Meade

Press Availability

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Secretariat of Foreign Affairs

Mexico City, Mexico

May 21, 2014

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MODERATOR: (In progress, via interpreter) – couple of questions for both secretaries.

FOREIGN SECRETARY MEADE: (Via interpreter) Good morning. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the Secretary of State of the United States, John Kerry. It is a great pleasure for us to receive him in our country, in this first official visit that he has had in our country. We have beyond a strong relationship; we have a very close dialogue, a dialogue that has a lot of actually (inaudible) different subjects which are important for both countries.
This time, we had a look at the progress of the different dialogue spaces. Is it working? Is the translation working?

SECRETARY KERRY: The translation’s working, but it cuts in and out.

FOREIGN SECRETARY MEADE: (Via interpreter) Well, so again, I welcome Mr. Kerry for – and I want to thank him for being here.

As I was saying, we have beyond a strong relationship and we have had a very good dialogue in this process. And this time, we have had a look at the progress of the different dialogue spaces that we have had in this program fostered by both administrations. The purpose is to follow up on the commitments made last year. We had the opportunity to look at the progress made in terms of the high-level economic dialogue and the progress being made in the national – in the U.S.-Mexican council for fostering innovation.

The idea is to foster companies – small and medium-sized companies – and to empower women. We started the Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation, and Research, a space that brings different institutions together – all of those in charge of developing public policies in order to make of education a key element.

As a result of this, a first group of Mexicans has left to improve their English, and this really shows the pace that we want to achieve, the type of mechanisms that we want to implement together. In Mexico, we want to exchange wellbeing opportunities for citizens in both countries, for Mexican communities in the United States. These communities have played an important role in terms of culture and economy, and they represent the future of our region.
We’re taking advantage of our network of consulate officers, always paying attention to the rights of citizens. In Mexico, we are trying to improve our economy, knowing that this joint venture will make of North America the most competitive region in the world. Again, I want to thank Mr. Kerry for his time, for his willingness to have this open dialogue, and be welcome.

SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon, everybody. Buenas tardes. I am very happy to be here. I want to thank my friend, Pepe, for his welcome here. He’s been a great partner. We have talked many times. And as I commented earlier, the education/innovation/research bilateral discussion, I think, (inaudible) my first or second point that I made when I first became Secretary of State. We’ve had an excellent cooperative relationship. President Obama was here in March. That’s his fifth trip. Vice President Biden here last September. So we will continue to be growing the strength of this relationship with high-level visits, and most importantly, with a cooperative agenda.

We’ve had a very constructive and very in-depth discussion this morning with the – you okay?
(Break.)

SECRETARY KERRY: Is the translation working?

PARTICIPANT: No.

SECRETARY KERRY: No, I can tell it’s not. (Inaudible.) (Laughter.) Should we test it? One, two, three, four, five, testing. One, two, three, four, five.

PARTICIPANT: Yeah, it’s working now.

SECRETARY KERRY: So I was saying that we had a very comprehensive and very constructive working lunch, and I’m now looking forward to an afternoon meeting with President Pena Nieto and also a meeting with major businessmen and women from Mexico.
There are really few countries with whom the United States enjoys as dynamic and as close a relationship as the one that we enjoy with Mexico. Our interests are obviously intertwined in many ways. We are neighbors, but we also have a common set of objectives, a common set of goals and aspirations. And because of our histories, our people are connected as closely as any two peoples on Earth.

As I said in January when Foreign Secretary Meade visited the State Department, when one of us prospers, both of us prosper; when one of us succeeds, we all succeed. And as North America itself becomes increasingly competitive as a continent, then our futures are going to be linked even more closely together.

Foreign Secretary Meade and I covered a lot of ground today. And the fact is that more than a billion dollars a day passes between us in bilateral trade. That literally translates into thousands of jobs, from Baja to Yucatan, from Boston all the way to Los Angeles. We all benefit from that economic relationship. When Presidents Obama and Pena Nieto met last year, they agreed to create a new high-level economic dialogue in order to foster more trade and more jobs and to spur even greater economic development, and most importantly, better opportunity for the citizens of both of our countries.

Today, I will meet with business leaders, this evening, and we’re going to talk about how we can use that dialogue in order to advance our interests and to ensure that our citizens have an even greater amount of opportunity and benefit from the growth that takes place between our countries.

Frankly, it is our citizens who ultimately define the relationship between us. And to make sure that that continues, we have invested time and energy in strengthening the education, research and innovation ties between our nations. Today, we had former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, former Cabinet member and now president of the University of California; we had the president of Arizona State University; we had other education leaders here working with your secretary, the secretary of education of Mexico, and other education leaders in Mexico – not just to talk, but to define between us a real agenda, a real set of objectives that will see more students from America study here in Mexico, and more Mexicans study in America, that will see us have more research and innovation projects where we create the jobs and the opportunities of the future. And I am convinced that this is the way that we’re going to strengthen our ties as well as, ultimately, our security and our economies.

Part of the cooperation that we’re focused on comes in the form of these educational exchanges. Already, there are 14,000 Mexicans studying in the United States every year, and 4,000 Americans studying here in Mexico. We want both numbers to grow. President Obama has set a target of 100,000 students going each way between the United States and Mexico, Central America, Latin America. We believe that that is achievable, and we’re ready to do more in order to achieve it.

Part of the reason that I’m also excited about the scientific and the research and innovation exchange is because of the essential role that that plays in clean energy, in dealing with the problem of climate change, and in helping especially with the clean technology initiative, the challenge which I’ll address later today. We have an opportunity to be able to create more jobs that are sustainable and that speak to the future of both of our countries. Clean energy is the mother of all markets. It’s the biggest market in the world. And all of us can benefit by moving in that kind of direction.

Finally, Foreign Secretary Meade and I discussed our cooperation on security and immigration – always issues of concern, but issues on which we are making significant progress. We reaffirmed our commitment to meeting our shared challenges in the spirit of a shared responsibility and mutual respect that characterizes – and must characterize – our bilateral relationship.

The world saw the seriousness of Mexico’s commitment to security with the remarkable capture of El Chapo, and we applaud our neighbors for all of their efforts in that initiative. We will continue to work together to respond to threats of transnational criminal organizations and to recognize that they pose a threat not to one country or the other but to both countries simultaneously.

I also reaffirmed to Foreign Secretary Meade that President Obama is determined to reform our immigration system, a goal that a majority of the American people support. It is the right thing to do. Reform, done the right way, will not only benefit our security and our economy, but it will provide for long-overdue relief to immigrant families that include many Mexican-Americans. So that is a very fundamental commitment by the President and myself and the Administration that we’re going to everything in our power to move. The Senate, as you know, has passed legislation; the House of Representatives has the bill in front of it. We’ hope that we can get that bill taken up. This is a matter of fundamental justice, fundamental relationship between countries. It needs to be done, it’s long overdue, and we hope we can make it happen.
So Foreign Secretary Meade, thank you for your always very generous welcome. Thank you for your partnership, and we look forward to continuing to work together, and I look forward to answering the questions with you.

MS. HARF: Great. Well, our first question comes from Tricia – excuse me – Tricia Zengerle of Reuters. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you, sirs. For Secretary Kerry: The dialogue between President Maduro and the opposition has broken down and there’s growing unrest in Venezuela. There’s concern that time’s running out. What are the United States and Mexico prepared to do to address the crisis? And more importantly, what can the two governments do? Is the United States finally prepared to impose sanctions? And lastly, for Mr. Secretary: Has President Putin outmaneuvered the United States by signing an energy deal with China?

And for Foreign Minister Meade: What are your concerns about the direction of the crisis in Venezuela, and what is your assessment – what is Mexico’s assessment – about what can be done and what should be done?

Thank you very much.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, with respect to Venezuela, substantial effort has been made by the Unasur Group, personal engagement by the foreign ministers of Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador, along with the papal nuncio. And we have had high hopes that this effort to mediate was going to produce a product that would put Venezuela on the route to recovery – recovery in terms of its economy and recovery in terms of the politics, the relationship of the government with the people.

Regrettably, there has just been a total failure by the Government of Venezuela to demonstrate good-faith actions to implement those things that they agreed to do approximately a month ago. And so we believe that what is important for the Venezuelan Government now to honor the dialogue process and to restore the civil liberties of opposition leaders who have been unjustly imprisoned and to protect the human rights of those who were simply trying to exercise their democratic right to express dissent.

The power is in the hands of the government, and the government has to exercise that power in a responsible way in order to make the choices to create stability and a way forward in Venezuela. All of this region will benefit if they will honor the agreements that have been made.
So we are witnessing an impatience that is growing in the neighborhood, and we consider ourselves to part of the neighborhood. We have great concern about the instability that is created as a result of what is happening in Venezuela. And again and again, we have said to Venezuela: We’re prepared to have a normal relationship. We are not engaged in any activities in Venezuela, except – in fact, we’ve purposely tried to encourage others: the foreign ministers I named and the papal nuncio. I personally visited in Rome with the secretary of state, His Eminence Cardinal Parolin, and we discussed the possibility of the Vatican being engaged as a mediator.

This is important for all of us. Our interest is for a stable, peaceful, democratic Venezuela that respects the interests of its people. And so our hope is that sanctions will not be necessary. Our hope is that we can move in the direction of reconciliation and a political path forward. But Congress clearly – the Congress of the United States is discussing those sanctions now. They have already passed some legislation reflecting that attitude; they’re moving it. And our hope is that the leaders, that President Maduro and others will make decisions that will make it unnecessary for them to be implemented. But all options remain on the table at this time, with the hopes that we can move the process forward.

With respect to President Putin and China, we don’t see any relationship whatsoever to an agreement with respect to gas and an energy supply between Russia and China that they’ve been working on for 10 years – for 10 years. This isn’t new. This isn’t a sudden response to what’s been going on. And if the world benefits as a result of that, it’s fine. That’s not what’s at stake here.

What’s at stake here is whether or not Russia is going to decide to respect the right of Ukrainians to be able to decide their future. And I don’t personally think that Russia signing a deal with China for gas that they’ve been working on for 10 years has any impact on what is about to happen in Ukraine, which is the people hopefully are going to have a chance to have an election.

And we welcome President Putin’s statement two days ago that he has instructed the troops that have been bivouacked on the border of Ukraine to move back to their home bases, to move away from there. If that happens – and we’re watching carefully – that’s extremely constructive. It’s positive. And we hope that – and the president has also – President Putin made other statements with respect to the separatist process going forward.
So it is possible with cooperative effort by everybody engaged here – the Europeans who have been involved in – most recently in some of the efforts to create a dialogue; working with the UN, with us, and with others; the efforts of the government of Kyiv; the interim government in Kyiv; and the efforts, obviously, of some leaders particularly in the east, recently, who have demonstrated courage in standing up for law and order and for a restoration of the process that will free people from this conflict.

So hopefully, we, in fact, are in a good moment – not a moment of one party outwitting another, but at a constructive moment where there’s a possibility of the people of Ukraine being able to determine their future, and all of us trying to find a way to further de-escalate this crisis. That’s our goal and that’s what we’re focused on.

FOREIGN SECRETARY MEADE: Secretary Kerry, thank you. Mexico has always believed that the way through conflict is dialogue. We have been very supportive of the dialogue process in Venezuela, but believe – we believe that this dialogue has to have some characteristics for it to be successful. We believe that the dialogue first has to be respectful; the dialogue has to – of course, to be inclusive; and the dialogue should bring about refocus.

In order for that dialogue to be meaningful, it should be held in an environment which is clearly respectful of human rights. We have stated that here. We have stated that in Venezuela when I went for my unofficial visit, but we have also stated that of which – for that process and that dialogue process to be very respectful of our democratic institutions. Latin America has worked very hard to generate the conditions for democracy to be born. So we think that the dialogue should have all of these characteristics, but at the same time it should be held within the context of the democratic institutions that we have constructed and with so much effort within the Latin American region.

MODERATOR: (In Spanish.)

QUESTION: (Via interpreter) This is a question for Secretary Kerry. When President Pena came into office, the level that he would have with the United States was questionable, especially in terms of unity. After one year and a half, what do you think about the relationship of this administration with the United States?

You said that the United States doesn’t have any interest in Venezuela, only to foster dialogue. But how can you explain that in Mexico, we learned some time ago that U.S. operatives was spying the candidate Pena Nieto. And recently, we found out that many of the telephone calls are wired. How can you explain this to the Mexican population in terms of migration? Is it true that President Obama has – it is true that President Obama has been fostering the reform, but it seems that he’s going into history as the president that has deported the most migrants. I know that this is something related to Congress, but I don’t know what is the position of President Obama and how he wants to go into history.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I believe President Obama will go down in history as the president who has held himself and his Administration accountable to the highest standards of transparency and accountability. The President has personally committed his Administration, which it has accomplished, to take an in-depth analysis of precisely what was happening, which everybody here knows President Obama didn’t order because he was in the Senate – and not even in the Senate – when much of this was put in place. And President Obama
And President Obama has ordered a process of accountability and transparency, and has been willing to lay it out for the world to see and understand that process of accountability. He gave a speech recently in which he set up new standards by which he believed the United States ought to behave, and I will tell you, because I was the author in the United States Senate with Senator John McCain of privacy with respect to the Internet and other uses, that we both believe very, very powerfully in the right of people to privacy (inaudible).

Now at the same time, the President of the United States has a fundamental responsibility to protect our people and to help protect people in the rest of the world who are potentially targeted by vicious extremists, terrorists in various parts of the world. The fact is that we have, because of our capable intelligence-gathering, been able to thwart many plots which would’ve resulted in the loss of civilian lives in one attack or another. There’s a delicate balance, and President Obama has worked very, very hard to achieve that balance. No President, I think, in our history has laid open as willingly for everybody to judge what we are doing as a guideline or as a standard by which we are going to try to balance this equity between security and protection and prevention versus privacy and respect for the rights of all of our citizens. And I think the President will actually be measured as having taken the most extraordinary steps of any president in our history in order to try to put that relationship back in balance.
Now, with respect to the relationship with President Pena Nieto and Mexico, I am convinced that our relationship is as strong and as vital as it has been. It is as productive on cross-border issues, on immigration issues, extradition issues, deportation issues; on our mutual interests in the economy; on our mutual interests of innovation, research, education that we’ve just been talking about – I don’t think we’ve ever had as in-depth and as repeated a series of meetings in an effort to make sure we’re on track. Now, does everything change overnight? No. I wish it did in lots of respects. But we are on track, with the agenda that we have set and the relationship that has been created, to deal with any bumps in the road, to work through difficulties of border police or policing or military, other kinds of things.

We’re working cooperatively. That’s what’s important. And we have made tremendous gains in the actual cooperation day to day in those endeavors. So I think the people of the United States and the people of Mexico should be pleased with the direction that we’re moving in. It’s open, it’s transparent, it’s accountable, and it’s productive. And I think we’re headed in the right direction.

FOREIGN SECRETARY MEADE: (Via interpreter) I’ll make further comments. This meeting has given us the opportunity to open a dialogue about different topics. At the beginning, President Pena Nieto had two objectives. He was convinced that Latin America could be very dynamic, even competitive. He thought that Latin America could be the most dynamic and economic region. He’s convinced that in order to have a good dialogue with the United States, it was necessary to find different spaces for different topics.

As the Secretary Kerry was saying, we have a million (inaudible) every year, and we have had benefits of this exchange. But we want to have a more structured dialogue so we can talk about migration, security in a framework of the right of migrants. That’s something that Mexico has always fostered, and we agree with President Obama. Security is a shared responsibility.
Apart from those two important subjects, Mexico and the United States are investing in education. We are investing capital – human capital – to increase the number of students going to the other country. We are talking about entrepreneurship; we are talking about empowering women; we are talking about giving people the power to manage their own businesses; we are talking about climate; we are talking about multilateral dialogues. And these have been achieved. We have the commitment of Obama’s Administration, and with the help of Secretary Kerry we have achieved a very well-balanced dialogue that will bring us together, that will bring us closer to this objective of making Latin America a very competitive region.
So the relationship between the two countries can be seen in terms of respect, with the necessary spaces to talk about very important topics. Today we are talking about education, the Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation, and Research. This type of initiatives will make sure that Latin America will be a point of the spear in order to achieve the competitiveness that we want to achieve. Thank you very much.

HABTOM NERHAY EXTRADITED FROM ERITREA TO U.S. TO FACE CHARGES OF HUMAN SMUGGLING

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, April 28, 2014

Alleged Human Smuggler Extradited to Face Charges in Washington, D.C.

Habtom Merhay, a national of Eritrea and a citizen of the United Kingdom, made his initial appearance Monday in Washington, D.C., federal court to face human smuggling charges for his role in smuggling primarily Eritrean and Ethiopian undocumented migrants from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, through South and Central America and Mexico into the United States.

Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. of the District of Columbia and Acting Special Agent in Charge Katrina W. Berger of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) made the announcement.

Merhay, 47, arrived in the United States on April 25, 2014, and made his initial appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson in the District of Columbia.   He was indicted under seal in the District of Columbia in 2012, and the charges were unsealed today.   Merhay has been in the custody of Moroccan authorities pending extradition since his arrest in Marrakech, Morocco, in August 2013.

The indictment charges Merhay with one count of conspiracy to bring undocumented migrants to the United States for profit and 15 counts of unlawfully bringing an undocumented migrant to the United States for profit.   Court documents allege that Merhay operated with a network of smugglers in Africa, the United Arab Emirates, South and Central America, Mexico and elsewhere to coordinate and implement arrangements, including providing fraudulent identity and travel documents, for undocumented migrants to travel through Latin America and ultimately into the United States without authorization.   For up to $15,000, Merhay arranged for individual undocumented migrants to travel from points in Africa to a house or apartment in Dubai, where he provided travel documents, tickets and instructions for meeting other smugglers while on the way to the United States.   Merhay coordinated the migrants’ air travel to South America, where they would meet with Merhay’s associates, who would direct or guide them across the various country borders.   The undocumented migrants then met with other smugglers associated with Merhay and were further guided north to Mexico and then into the United States, sometimes by crossing the Rio Grande River by raft.

The investigation was conducted under the Extraterritorial Criminal Travel Strike Force (ECT) program, a joint partnership between the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and ICE-HSI.  The ECT program focuses on human smuggling networks that may present particular national security or public safety risks or present grave humanitarian concerns.  ECT has dedicated investigative, intelligence and prosecutorial resources.  ECT coordinates and receives assistance from other U.S. government agencies and foreign law enforcement authorities.

The investigation was conducted by HSI Washington.  This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Jay Bauer of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederick Yette of the District of Columbia.  The extradition was handled by Dan E. Stigall of the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs.

The Department of Justice and HSI expressed their appreciation for the significant assistance provided by the Moroccan Ministry of Justice.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

U.S. MARSHALS REPORT ESCAPEE CAPTURED AND RETURNED TO U.S. AFTER 16 YEARS ON THE RUN

FROM:  U.S. MARSHALS SERVICE 

Contact:

April 24, 2014 SDUSM Arthur Fernandez

Southern District of Texas 

USMS Office of Public Affairs

Texas Prison Escapee Captured After 16 Years, Returned to the U.S. from Mexico
Capture ended one of the longest escape investigations in Texas history
Houston, TX – Members of the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Violent Offender and Fugitive Task Force escorted an international fugitive back to the United States today following his extradition from Mexico.

Juan Jose Salaz was wanted for escaping a Texas prison 17 years ago. Mexican federal agents arrested him in Mexico in January 2013. He was extradited to the United States today, where he will serve the remainder of his multiple sentences. He is currently being held in the Harris County Jail.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Office of Inspector General and members of the GCVOFTF, worked jointly with the U.S. Marshals on this case.

“This capture and extradition closes an important fugitive case that took extensive international coordination and determination by our task force investigators,” said Gary Blankinship, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Texas. “Justice will finally be served.”

Salaz escaped from the recreation yard of the TDCJ – Garza East Prison in Beeville March 22, 1997. He climbed over three 16-feet razor-wired security fences, launching one of the longest prison escape investigations in Texas history.

At the time of the escape, Salaz was serving three concurrent 35-year sentences for aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon and two counts of attempted capital murder of a police officer. Police records show Salaz and an accomplice abducted a man at gunpoint April 2, 1995, and demanded a ransom. Houston police undercover officers arranged for the exchange. Once the abducted man was freed, they identified themselves as police and Salaz and his accomplice opened fire. A police sergeant was hit in the chest, but was saved by his ballistic vest. Salaz was seriously wounded when police returned fire, but he recovered from his injuries and subsequently pleaded guilty. His accomplice was arrested and is serving a life sentence.

"The capture and return of offender Salaz to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice bring to close a 17-year endeavor for the Office of the Inspector General,” said Inspector General Bruce Toney, Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “During this time, the OIG never retreated from the pursuit or lost sight of the goal to bring Salaz back to Texas to serve his sentence. I would like to thank the efforts of the United States Marshals, who worked diligently with the OIG to see justice served. The cooperative working relationship shared between the United States Marshals and OIG cannot be over emphasized.”

HAGEL URGES U.S., CANADA, MEXICO WORK TOGETHER ON THREAT ASSESSMENT AND CYBERSECURITY

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

Right:  Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel lays a wreath with Mexican Ministers of National Defense Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda and Adm. Vidal Francisco Soberón Sanz at the Squadron 201 Memorial in Mexico City, April 24, 2014. Hagel participated in the wreath-laying ceremony after attending the second North American Defense Ministerial trilateral meeting among defense ministers of Mexico, Canada and the United States to discuss issues of mutual importance. DOD Photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo.  

Hagel Urges Trilateral Work for Threat Assessment, Cybersecurity
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT, April 25, 2014 – At the second North American Defense Ministerial, with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel urged a quick start to trilateral work on continental threat assessment and cybersecurity, and closer work among the three nations on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

The secretary also offered to host the next defense ministerial in Washington in 2016 to continue the important trilateral dialogue.

Meeting in Mexico City yesterday during his first forum with Canadian Defense Minister Rob Nicholson and Mexico’s Secretary of National Defense Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda and Naval Secretary Adm. Vidal Francisco Soberón Sanz, Hagel observed in prepared remarks that a dynamic defense partnership that builds on successes and shared interests, and respects sovereignty concerns, will create a more resilient North America.

“Our presence here today and our commitment to advancing our defense partnership is a recognition that together we can more effectively address the complex security threats facing our countries,” the secretary said during the ministerial plenary session.

Beginning with common challenges, Hagel said the ministers should support a Canadian proposal to produce a digest of collective defense activities and policies.

Similar to an effort begun after the inaugural 2012 North American Defense Ministerial to develop an updated continental threat assessment, he added, such a digest could provide a starting point to coordinate efforts to avoid duplication and maximize scarce resources.

The initial effort to develop a continental threat assessment was a good start to identifying common threats and interests, the secretary said.

“There is merit to updating that assessment to reflect current and future threats and deepen our understanding of our security challenges. I propose that we establish a working group to provide principals an updated, non-binding, continental threat assessment within a year after this ministerial,” Hagel said. “It’s something we can assess when we next meet at the ministerial level.”

Cybersecurity is another common challenge that knows no borders, the secretary said.
Each U.S. defense institution works individually to address potential cyber threats, he said, adding that the Defense Department has worked to elevate the importance of cybersecurity in the National Security Strategy.

In its recently released Quadrennial Defense Review, the department said it would dedicate more resources to cybersecurity, Hagel noted.

“While our defense institutions do not have the lead in our respective countries for cybersecurity, we all share a common interest in [protecting] military communications,” the secretary said. “I propose that we establish a cyber working group to identify potential opportunities to work together to share best practices and lessons learned.”

On humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, Hagel said natural disasters also recognize no national borders and defense institutions provide critical support to lead civilian agencies under such circumstances.

“Each of our nations faces constrained defense budgets [but] the demand for military support to civilian agencies continues to increase as we experience more frequent and larger-scale natural disasters,” the secretary said.

“This was a key … subject of discussion at the [Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or] ASEAN Defense Ministers meeting I attended earlier this month in Hawaii. We are making important progress with our Southeast Asian partners in coordinating military responses to disasters,” Hagel told the ministers, “and I am pleased that we are beginning to do the same in our hemisphere.”

Recalling relief efforts after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2004 Indonesian 9.1-magnitude earthquake whose Indian Ocean tsunami killed as many as 230,000 people, the secretary said these natural disasters demonstrate the challenges any one country faces in trying to meet enormous demands for humanitarian assistance in the wake of such events.

The capabilities and experience militaries collectively bring in response to natural disasters can’t be overstated, he added.

“I would like to see our three countries work more closely together in the area of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” Hagel said.

“We should commit to focusing attention on developing our capacity to coordinate, with a goal of maximizing our resources,” the secretary added. “This is an area that would benefit from establishment of a permanent working group tasked with identifying areas of cooperation and implementing coordination protocols as we move forward.”

During their meetings, the ministers agreed with a working group determination that combating transnational crime at the strategic level is best addressed by the security group under the North American Leaders Summit process.
But, Hagel said, “We need to ensure that coordination at the tactical and operational levels continues.”

A Canadian proposal to establish and serve as the initial chair of a permanent secretariat was an important step toward institutionalizing the North American Defense Ministerial, Hagel said.

As members of a regional organization, the secretary said, the ministers should work individually to strengthen hemispheric forums such as the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Defense Board, an international committee of defense officials who develop collaborative approaches on defense and security issues facing North, Central and South American countries, and the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas, created in 1995 to provide a forum of debate for Northern Hemisphere countries.

“The upcoming October conference of defense ministers in Peru will address hemispheric defense cooperation in key areas such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, search and rescue, and military health,” Hagel added.

After the meeting, in comments to the press, Hagel said, “These kinds of dialogues and conferences are important for many reasons but especially important it gives the ministers themselves an opportunity to personally exchange ideas and thoughts about our world, about our common interests and about our common challenges.”
The secretary said he and the other ministers have tasked their defense agencies to go forward and put together plans and programs based on initiatives agreed to during the meeting.

After the ministerial, Hagel joined Zepeda and Sanz at a somber wreath-laying ceremony for some of the 250,000 Mexican citizens who served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II.

The memorial to El Escuadron 201 in Mexico City's Chapultepec Park celebrates the 36 experienced combat pilots and the 250 or so electricians, mechanics, radiomen and armament specialists who made up the ground crew of Mexican Fighter Squadron 201, called the Aztec Eagles, who fought alongside U.S. troops in the last months of World War II in Europe.

The squadron left Mexico for the United States in July 1944 and received five months or more of training at facilities around the country. It was the first time Mexican troops had been trained for overseas combat.

The 300 volunteers of the Aztec Eagles were attached to the U.S. Army Air Forces 5th Air Force's 58th Fighter Group during the liberation of the main Philippine island of Luzon in the summer of 1945.

The pilots flew P-47D "Thunderbolt" single-seat fighter aircraft, carrying out tactical air-support missions, according to a 2003 American Forces Press Service article and interview with former Aztec Eagles pilot, retired Mexican air force Col. Carlos Garduno, who said the pilots flew close-air support missions for American and Filipino infantry troops on the ground.

The Aztec Eagles flew 59 combat missions, totaling more than 1,290 hours of flight time, participating in the allied effort to bomb Luzon and Formosa, now Taiwan, to push the Japanese out of those islands.

Immediately after the wreath-laying ceremony, Hagel told a press gathering that the memorial is “a pretty special monument to a country that participated with the allies, with the United States, in World War II.”

He added, “[It was] a brave thing that Mexico did. The service rendered, represented by this memorial, should be remembered.”

The secretary said he was honored to be part of the ceremony and shared a personal connection to the Aztec Eagles and their service to the nation.
“I know what memorials mean to countries and how they reflect their history and their sacrifices, Hagel said. “In fact, the 201st … that represented the expeditionary force of Mexico was attached to an Army Air Corps unit in the Pacific that my father served in, in World War II, with the 13th Army Air Corps.
“So I have some family and special recognition as to what this unit meant and also a personal appreciation,” he continued. “And on behalf of the United States I want to thank the country of Mexico for their contributions to all of our efforts in World War II.”