[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 148 (Tuesday, October 21, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12964-S12965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE IN MEXICO
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as one Member of Congress who believes that
we have a strong interest in broadcasting and strengthening our
relations with Mexico, I was appalled to read a recent Washington Post
article entitled ``Three Americans Jailed in Bizarre Mexican Land
Dispute.''
Mexico is a country of 100 million people. We share a border. We
share a wide range of cultural, economic, political, and other
interests. Yet our history has been a troubled one, and the election of
Vicente Fox offered an historic opportunity to begin to build a new
relationship based on trust, mutual understanding, and shared goals.
Regrettably, President Bush, who shortly after his inauguration spoke
convincingly of his intention to give a high priority to U.S.-Mexican
relations, has failed to turn those words into action. Little has been
accomplished. I am afraid that once again, the hopes and aspirations of
both Mexicans and Americans will be for naught.
The President needs to recognize that as important as the Middle East
and the Persian Gulf are to U.S. and global security, we have vital
interests right here in our own hemisphere. I remember how during the
1980s we spent billions of dollars to wage proxy wars in Central
America. Yet when those wars were over, we turned our back. Today, with
the exception of our counter-drug programs in the Andes, which as we
have seen recently in Bolivia are of dubious merit, we spend a pittance
to support economic and political development in these countries the
majority of whose people remain impoverished and without meaningful
political or legal rights. Our policy is short sighted and it will cost
us in the long run.
Of all countries in the hemisphere, none is more important to U.S.
interests than Mexico. it would be difficult to think of any issue--
immigration, tourism, trade, infectious disease, water security,
environmental pollution, democracy and the rule of law, organized
crime--that does not cry out for broader cooperation. I hope President
Bush, and his capable new Assistant Secretary of State for Western
Hemisphere Affairs, Roger Noriega, will give renewed attention to these
issues during the remaining years of President Fox's term.
I mention this because earlier this year, I sponsored, with Senator
Reid, Senator Daschle and others, an amendment which authorized $100
million to be spent in Mexico to promote micro credit programs, small
business entrepreneurship, private property ownership, and support for
small farmers who have been affected by adverse economic conditions. I
felt it was important to make a strong statement, through legislation,
that we need to devote significant resources to help address these
problems. Our amendment was adopted, and it is my hope that we can
include a portion of those funds for Mexico in the fiscal year 2004
Foreign Operations Act.
But my support for providing those funds will depend on whether the
case which is the subject of the Washington Post article I mentioned is
satisfactorily resolved. The three Americans who have been arrested are
the victims of an absurd miscarriage of justice. Fortunately, according
to the article, the American Embassy in Mexico is following the case
closely, and recognizes that these three people have done nothing
wrong. To the contrary, they have generously cared for an ailing,
elderly American, Russell Ames, who lost his wife Jean Ames three years
ago. Jean Ames was a wonderful woman, and her death was a great blow to
Russell Ames. Ames, already in his late eighties at the time of his
wife's death, would never have been able to continue to live in his
home in a small village near Oaxaca, Mexico, without the around-the-
clock care of Mary Ellen Sanger and the other Americans who lived on
the property.
My office has conveyed my concern about the unlawful arrests and
detentions of these three Americans to the Mexican Embassy in
Washington. These people should be immediately released and the cases
against them dismissed. And, just as important, President Fox, who has
repeatedly said that his presidency stands for the rule of law, should
determine whether the Mexican official who is responsible for this
travesty should be removed from his position.
I ask unanimous consent to print the aforementioned article in the
Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Washington Post, Oct. 18, 2003]
Three Americans Jailed in Bizarre Mexican Land Dispute
caretakers of man, 91, held in standoff involving a member of president
fox's cabinet
(By Kevin Sullivan)
Oaxaca, Mexico--Three U.S. citizens, including a man dying
of cancer, have been jailed here and face up to 14 years in
prison in a land dispute involving a member of President
Vicente Fox's cabinet.
The Americans, two men and a woman, are long-term friends
and caretakers for a former U.S. college professor, Russell
Ames, 91, who has lived in Oaxaca since 1959. Ames and his
late wife sold their land to the University of the Americas
in Mexico City in 1988 in exchange for lifetime rights to
remain on the property. But now the university, whose
president, Alejandro Gertz Manero, is on leave serving as
Fox's minister of public security, is trying to force Ames
off the land.
A municipal judge and a squad of state police officers
arrived at Ames's property on Friday in an attempt to evict
him. Neighbors said about 60 people who live in a nearby
village, including the mayor and police chief, came to
support Ames, blocking his removal.
Ames said that arresting his three friends on charges of
trying to take over the land for themselves was a
``ridiculous'' attempt to intimidate him into leaving.
``These three Americans are innocent bystanders and the
embassy feels what has happened to them is an outrage,'' said
Laura Clerici, consul general at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico
City, which has sent officials to monitor the case.
U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza has complained about the case to
Gertz, who is also a university trustee. Gertz said the
arrests were legal and that he has not improperly used his
influence in the case.
The case is one of a number of land disputes involving
Americans who live or own property in Mexico. Earlier this
year an American couple was forced off land they owned in the
southern state of Chiapas by local residents wielding
machetes. Three years ago scores of U.S. citizens lost
millions of dollars in investments when they were evicted
from oceanfront homes they bought in Ensenada in the western
state of Baja, California. U.S. officials at the time blamed
the losses on a lack of consistency and transparency in
Mexican property laws. At least half a dozen more major
disputes are pending over property owned by Americans along
the Caribbean coast.
``We are being held hostage,'' Mary Ellen Sanger, one of
the three jailed Americans, said in an interview in a state
prison here. Sanger, 45, a native of Schenectady, N.Y., said
she had been assigned latrine-cleaning duty in the prison and
slept on a concrete floor with 44 other women in a communal
cell.
Sanger has been a caretaker, feeding, dressing and walking
with Ames for almost three years. Joseph Simpson, widower who
is about 72 and suffering from late-stage terminal throat
cancer, has been a caretaker on the property for more than
a decade. He is now under police guard at a Oaxaca
hospital, where U.S. Embassy officials who visited him
said he was in grave condition. John Barbato, 58, from
Nevada City, Calif., a poet and artist who has known Ames
since 1985, rents a small house on the property and is in
prison with Sanger.
Despite their longstanding ties to Ames and the property,
the three were arrested on Oct. 6 and charged with violently
taking possession of the land on May 1. U.S. officials said
the arrest warrant claimed the three Americans moved onto the
property that day in a conspiracy to take the land for
themselves, charges that carry a penalty of three to 14 years
in prison.
``That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard,'' said Ames,
who was being fed dinner and ice cream by Sanger when a squad
of police arrived at his house to make the arrests. ``They
took care of me for several years. I felt enormously lucky to
be taken care of by them. Most people my age don't have
anybody, or are just miserable.''
The underlying issue behind the arrests is the dispute over
the land where Ames lives, a parcel worth an estimated
$250,000 in one of Mexico's most popular tourist
destinations.
Ames said the sale of his land to the university was part
of a charitable donation. Records show that the property was
in the name of his wife, Jean Ames, who transferred ownership
to the university for $60,000, half of its assessed value at
the time. Ames said he and his wife never received that
money; the listed purchase price was simply a legal formality
for tax purposes. In return, Ames said the university agreed
to allow him and his wife to live on the land for the rest of
their lives, and to pay them up to $4,000 a year.
[[Page S12965]]
Gertz, who became president of the university in 1995, said
in an interview that the land deal was made with Jean Ames
only. The notarized sale agreement specifies that only she
would have lifetime rights to the land. But numerous letters
contained in Ames' files show that his wife intended that
both of them be allowed to live out their lives there.
``If he's saying that I have no rights here at all, that's
ridiculous,'' Ames said. ``We were dealing with splendid
people at the university back then. And they made a provision
for me that I could live here for the rest of my life.''
Ames and his wife lived together on the land until Jean
Ames died in 2000 at age 92. Then, in May of this year, Ames
was served with an eviction notice by the university, giving
him nine days to vacate the property and ordering him to pay
nearly $40,000 in back rent--$1,000 a month since the death
of his wife. Ames said he was stunned and angry. He hired a
lawyer and filed a civil suit against the university, saying
he no longer wanted it to have his land. That case is
pending.
Gertz said that following the death of Jean Ames, Russell
Ames should have sent the university a letter asking
permission to remain on the property. However, despite the
eviction notice, Gertz said Ames would ``of course'' be
allowed to stay on the property until he dies if he seeks
university permission now.
Gertz said Sanger, Simpson and Barbato never asked the
university's permission to live on the land, so they were
trespassing and deserved to be arrested. But Ames said he
believes the three Americans were jailed on trumped-up
charges to intimidate him into leaving his property and
dropping his civil suit.
``I hope this is a big bluff, but I'm scared,'' Barbato
said.
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