[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15862]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              VIOLENCE IN THE STATE OF TAMAULIPAS, MEXICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Vela) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. VELA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring attention to the violence in 
the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico.
  Last month, three of my constituents were murdered in northern 
Mexico. Erica Alvarado Salinas, Alex Alvarado, and Jose Angel Alvarado 
were visiting their father near Matamoros, Mexico, on the other side of 
my hometown of Brownsville, Texas. The siblings were abducted on 
October 13 by armed men. Their burned bodies were found on October 29 
in a field in northern Mexico.
  Today I call on the United States State Department to ensure that the 
Mexican Government thoroughly investigates these heinous crimes and 
that those responsible be brought to justice and prosecuted to the 
fullest extent of the law. These cold-blooded murders demonstrate the 
brutal violence in northern Mexico.
  In a travel warning dated October of 2014, the State Department 
warns:

       Matamoros, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, and Ciudad Victoria have 
     experienced numerous gun battles and attacks with explosive 
     devices in the past year. Violent conflicts between rival 
     criminal elements and/or the Mexican military can occur in 
     all parts of the region and at all times of the day. The 
     number of reported kidnappings for Tamaulipas is among the 
     highest in Mexico, and the number of U.S. citizens reported 
     to the consulates in Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo as being 
     kidnapped, abducted, or disappearing involuntarily in the 
     first half of 2014 has also increased.

  For the last century and a half, residents of northern Mexico and 
south Texas enjoyed a bicultural experience where crossing to work, 
eat, shop, or visit family and friends was a part of everyday life. 
This way of life has been ripped apart. We should demand that those 
whose criminal acts have destabilized Mexico be held responsible.
  Martin Luther King said, ``Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice 
everywhere.'' Our country must ensure that those who murdered Erica, 
Alex, and Jose be brought to justice.

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