Opening Statement

Chairman Eliot L. Engel

House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere

Central America and the Merida Initiative

Thursday, May 8, 2008

I am pleased to welcome you to today’s hearing on Central America and the Merida Initiative, and as always, I am delighted to welcome back my good friend, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Tom Shannon.

Yesterday, the Appropriations Committee unveiled its supplemental war spending bill. To be frank, I am disappointed that Mexico would receive less than $300 million of the $500 million requested by the Administration. I hope to work with the appropriators in conference to push this number up. I also have been working closely with Chairman Berman on Merida Initiative legislation which would authorize full funding for the Merida Initiative. I would like to commend the Chairman for pressing ahead with our legislation. This effort will demonstrate to the Congress, the Administration, and our friends in Mexico and Central America that we understand the problem our region is facing with narco-trafficking and violence and strongly support fully funding the Merida Initiative.

When the Merida Initiative was first unveiled last October, many of us in Congress were concerned about the disparity in funding between Mexico and Central America. These concerns were shared by our friends in Central America. In November, the Washington Post reported that “the funding imbalance in the Bush Administration’s new anti-drug plan, which would send 10 times as much aid to Mexico as to all 7 Central American nations combined is generating anxiety in Central America.” To be frank, the initial $50 million proposed for Central America was really just a drop in the bucket, so I was pleased that the appropriators decided to up this number to $61.5 million in the supplemental bill. This is especially important considering that 90% of the cocaine shipped from the Andes to the United States flows through Central America, and homicide rates are on the rise in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Even Costa Rica – renowned for being one of the safest countries in Central America – is beginning to suffer from increasing rates of violent crime and murder. The Costa Rican government said in early 2008 that robbery rates have risen by 700 percent since 1990, while drug-related crime is up 280 percent in the same period.

I was encouraged to see that in FY 2009, the proposed Merida funding for Central America was doubled, and I hope we will continue in that direction in future years. Last year, the House of Representatives passed a resolution that I authored commending the State Department’s participation in the first U.S. – Central American Integration System (SICA) Dialogue on security and “encouraging Central American and United States officials to meet on a regular basis to further cooperation in combating crime and violence in Central America.” The Central American piece of the Merida Initiative is very much a result of the U.S. – SICA dialogue, and as a result, I think it is by and large quite a positive proposal.

Let me quickly list some of my concerns. First and foremost, I believe there should be a greater focus on the prevention side of youth gang violence. Less than 10% of the proposed assistance for Central America is for prevention programs. I hope we have learned by now that failing to adequately invest in prevention programs will only hurt us in the future. Let’s not learn this lesson the hard way in Central America.

Second, perhaps the number one issue that is raised with me by officials from Central America is the havoc wreaked on their countries by the deportation of criminals from the United States back to Central America. While I am not objecting to the deportation of these individuals, we must do more to support the countries of Central America who receive these deportees. I was quite frankly shocked that no funding in the Merida Initiative was budgeted to support programs that help reintegrate deportees back into society in their home countries. I also continue to be extremely disappointed that the Department of Homeland Security refuses to provide our Central American friends with the full rap sheet of criminal deportees arriving in their countries. I would like to hear Secretary Shannon address these points today.

Third, while I was pleased to see that the Mexico portion of the Merida Initiative includes proposed funding to develop a witness and victim protection program, I am disturbed that no such funding is proposed for Central America. Particularly with the creation of the U.N. International Commission against Impunity (CICIG) in Guatemala, there will be a significant need for enhanced witness and victim protection programs. I recently sent a bipartisan letter with 32 of my colleagues to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey urging the Department of Justice to provide operational and technical assistance to the CICIG. This would include technical assistance for the creation of a witness and victim protection program, as well as the short-term provision of detailees from the FBI specializing in forensics, financial crimes and drug trafficking. This additional assistance to the CICIG would be a perfect complement to the Merida Initiative.

Finally, I recently learned in the press that there are discussions underway in the Administration to consider providing $300 million worth of military equipment to Central American countries. The proposal – announced by U.S. Air Force Commanders in Tucson – reportedly aims to outfit Central American countries with cargo aircraft, helicopters and attack planes. It is shocking to me that Members of Congress are still learning about Merida-related proposals from the Bush Administration’s statements in the press rather than from the Administration itself. But, given the way this Administration has failed to treat Congress as a co-equal branch, I should not be shocked at all. While this may perhaps be a worthy proposal, I think the Administration should do a better job communicating what exactly this additive $300 million might do and how it would fit – or not fit – within the Merida Initiative.

Again, I want to thank Secretary Shannon for testifying today. And, we also look forward to hearing from our private witnesses who I will introduce after the first panel. I am now pleased to call on Ranking Member Burton for his opening statement.