Diplomat Jim Patterson and Senator Dianne Feinstein on Mexican Human Rights Abuses

Dear Mr. Patterson:

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns regarding human rights abuses by police in Mexico.  I appreciate the time you took to write, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.

As you mentioned in your letter, on September 26, 2014, a group of 43 students went missing near Iguala, Mexico.  Various accounts have indicated that local police, under the direction of Igualan Mayor Jose Luis Abarca, were responsible for their disappearance and suspected murder.  Federal Mexican authorities have an ongoing investigation and have identified at least one victim, whose body was found burnt and buried.  According to statements made by the Attorney General of Mexico and media reports, the investigation has led to over 70 arrests, including Mayor Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda.  Please know that Mexican authorities are in communication with the U.S. State Department regarding the matter.  

I understand that as a result of these recent events, you have concerns about U.S. foreign aid provided to police programs in Mexico, including programs funded through the State Department's Merida Initiative.  You may be interested to know that the Merida Initiative funds programs that mitigate corruption and promote human rights within police departments.  During the past several years and in part through funding from the Merida Initiative, Mexico has invested over $10 billion in justice sector institutions to improve government transparency and legal protections for its citizens.

However, please know that I appreciate and agree with your view that foreign aid should be withheld from perpetrators of human rights abuses.  As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I supported the Consolidated and Further Appropriations Act, 2015" (H.R. 83), which was signed into law by the President on December 16, 2014.  This bill includes various provisions to address human rights in Mexico, including $148 million for international narcotics control and law enforcement and $7 million for foreign military financing.  Be assured that this funding is contingent upon the Mexican government demonstrating its compliance with and enforcement of human rights laws, including searching for victims of forced disappearances and investigating and prosecuting those responsible for such crimes. 

Please know that I have taken careful note of your concerns, and I will be mindful of your letter as the Senate considers funding for foreign aid programs in Mexico going forward.

Again, thank you for writing.  I hope you will continue to contact me regarding issues of importance to you.  Should you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C., office at (202) 224-3841.  Best regards.

Sincerely yours,


  Dianne Feinstein
         United States Senator
Further information about my position on issues of concern to California and the nation are available at my website, feinstein.senate.gov. And please visit my YouTube, Facebook and Twitter for more ways to communicate with me.

Diplomat Jim Patterson Comments on President Obama's Iran Letter

Activism

Dear James:Thank you for writing.  On April 2, the United States—together with our allies and partners—reached a historic understanding with Iran.  If fully implemented, this framework will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, making our Nation, our allies, and our world safer. For decades, Iran has been advancing its nuclear program.  When I took Office, Iran was operating thousands of centrifuges—which can produce the materials for a nuclear bomb—and was concealing a secret nuclear facility.  I made it clear that the United States was prepared to find a diplomatic resolution if Iran came to the table in a serious way. But that didn’t happen.  So we rallied the world to impose the toughest sanctions in history, profoundly impacting Iran’s economy.  Sanctions couldn’t stop Iran’s nuclear program on their own, but they helped bring Iran to the negotiating table.  And after many months of tough and principled diplomacy, the United States—joined by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the European Union—achieved the framework for a deal that will cut off every pathway Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon.  I want you to understand exactly what this deal entails. First, it stops Iran from pursuing a bomb using plutonium, because Iran will not develop weapons-grade plutonium.  The core of its reactor at Arak will be dismantled and replaced.  The spent fuel from that facility will be shipped out of Iran for the life of the reactor.  Iran will not build a new heavy-water reactor.  And Iran will never reprocess fuel from its existing reactors. Second, it shuts down Iran’s path to a bomb using enriched uranium.  Iran has agreed to reduce its installed centrifuges by two-thirds.  It will no longer enrich uranium at its Fordow facility, and it will not enrich uranium with its advanced centrifuges for at least the next 10 years.  And the vast majority of its stockpile of enriched uranium will be neutralized. Third, it provides the best possible defense against Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear weapon in secret.  Iran has agreed to the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regime ever negotiated for any nuclear program in history.  International inspectors will have unprecedented access not only to Iranian nuclear facilities, but to the entire supply chain that supports Iran’s nuclear program—from uranium mills that provide the raw materials, to the centrifuge production and storage facilities that support the program. If Iran cheats, the world will know. In return for Iran’s actions, the international community has agreed to provide Iran with relief from certain sanctions—our own sanctions, and international sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.  This relief will be tied to the steps Iran takes to adhere to the deal.  And if Iran violates the deal, sanctions can be snapped back into place.  Meanwhile, other American sanctions on Iran—for its support of terrorism, its human rights abuses, and its ballistic missile program—will be fully enforced. Now, our work is not yet done.  Negotiators will continue to work through the details of how this framework will be fully implemented, and those details matter.  And let me be clear:  If Iran backslides, and the verification and inspection mechanisms don’t meet the specifications of our nuclear and security experts, there will be no deal. But if we can get this done, and Iran follows through on the framework that our negotiators agreed to, we will be able to peacefully resolve one of the gravest threats to our Nation.  To learn more about this historic deal and how it will make the United States, our allies, and our world safer, please visit www.WhiteHouse.gov/Iran-deal. Sincerely, Barack Obama This is a realistic letter and I am glad to see President Obama mentioned “allies and partners.” I assume “partners” includes Congressional foreign policy leadership. It is good the White House and Congress are working together on this. Iran is an aggressor natio and poltically hostile to the West. I am disappointed President Obama did not address Iran’s human rights abuses. Economic sanctions related to abuse of women, girls and gays should be maintained until the US and the world community sees real change in terms of an end to abuses and extensions of legal protections for the all abused minorities. Jim Patterson