Invasion

MEXICO CAN'T ACCOUNT FOR MURDERED AMERICANS

By Andrew Peterson
For CoverUs.com

Mexico can't, our own State Department can't, and a prominent political watchdog group wonders why we'd even bother trying.

Trying to do what?

Nothing important, really. Just keeping track of kidnapped and murdered American citizens in Mexico.

So says an article by Penny Starr, writing for the Cybercast News Service. In it, a Mexican diplomat on Capitol Hill to discuss legislation that would give Mexico huge amounts of money to fight drug trafficking, is quoted:

"There is no centralized tracking in lieu of them being citizens of another nation," Sarukhan said when asked by Cybercast News Service if Mexican authorities had any information about arrests or convictions in the cases of 128 U.S. citizens who the U.S. State Department said were murdered or executed in Mexico between Jan. 1, 2005 and Dec. 31, 2007."

Our own State Department is also in the dark, claiming:

... that it does not publish reports on the number of Americans kidnapped in Mexico and that Mexican sovereignty keeps U.S. law enforcement from operating in the country.

The issue gained wide attention when a Mexican national relative of U.S. Rep. Silvestri Reyes was kidnapped in Mexico in June and rescued three days later.

Oddly, a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called for an investigation into whether Reyes used improper influence to get the help of United States law enforcement in solving the kidnapping.

"There have been other cases of people who have been kidnapped and other Americans who have asked for help for their relatives, and I don't think that they've been given that help," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, told Cybercast News Service.

"This was a situation where a foreign national on foreign soil was kidnapped by foreigners," Sloan said. "I just didn't understand what American interest there is in rescuing this woman. Not that it's not good she is rescued and everybody is happy she is okay. But why this case and no other? That doesn't make sense."

Our Take

It seems to us that an undercurrent of U.S. kowtowing to Mexico runs through this story. We find that more than a little irksome given the enormous pile of U.S. taxpayer dollars Mexico is on the verge of getting from us. It seems to us that prior to receiving this windfall profit, Mexico should be compelled to create a tracking system dedicated to this problem, and that it's operation be made as transparent as possible. The U.S. is being entirely too bashful about this. We have a strong hand. Let's play it.

Read the original article.