[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 27 (Wednesday, March 5, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H728]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      CERTIFICATION OF MEXICO SENDS WRONG MESSAGE TO DRUG KINGPINS

  (Mr. SHAW asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHAW. Mr. Speaker, on a subject of seriousness, what I want to 
talk about today, I find it a little difficult following the gentleman 
from Ohio.
  It is shocking, Mr. Speaker, indeed shocking, that with all of the 
evidence before the President regarding the complicity of the Mexican 
Government and the $30 billion a year drug trade, that he has decided 
to certify Mexico as a reliable partner in the war on drugs. The 
President's certification of Mexico makes a mockery out of the 
certification process.
  Ironically, within mere hours after the President announced that 
Mexico was certified as cooperating, Mexican authorities admitted that 
a suspected top drug money launderer had inexplicably escaped from 
police custody and that they knew this days before the certification 
decision was made.
  Is this what the President calls cooperation? Was it not enough that 
Mexico's own drug czar was caught accepting bribes from the drug 
kingpins just last week? The President was duped.
  I realize that Mexico is a friend and the United States-Mexican 
economics are intertwined, but certifying Mexico as cooperating sent 
the wrong message to the Mexican Government and to the drug kingpins.

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