Dear Friends

It has been an eventful and, in many ways, difficult several weeks. Of course, the attention of the Embassy community has been focused on the plight of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. We have been heartened by the rapid outpouring of sentiment and support from throughout Mexico. The United States is very grateful to the people of Mexico for the generosity extended to us after this disastrous event. In addition, in the past several weeks, the Embassy has been hard at work on new initiatives to strengthen the security and prosperity of our citizens on both sides of the border. I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on new developments within the Embassy.

We were very pleased to accept a recent Mexican army convoy of 45 trucks of relief supplies to the region affected by Hurricane Katrina, which entered the United States on Thursday, September 8, 2005. Additionally, we are thankful for the Mexican navy’s dispatch of a ship carrying supplies, water purification equipment, and engineers with expertise in repairing dykes.

I would like to thank you all, on behalf of the Untied States and our citizens, for the kindness and solidarity you have shown.

Click here for the press release on Hurricane Katrina assistance.

In other news here at the Embassy, on August 19, 2005, along with Mexican Foreign Relations Under Secretary for North American Affairs Geronimo Gutierrez, I announced an agreement to implement cooperative programs between Mexico and the United States against trafficking in persons-- crimes of sexual exploitation and forced labor against women and children.

The agreement is part of the work that both countries developed within existing bilateral mechanisms, and complements the objectives of the Security and Prosperity Partnership for North America, which the Presidents of Mexico, the United States and Canada announced last June.

Under our recent agreement, the United States will allocate over three million dollars to fund two government-to-government projects to establish trafficking in persons investigation groups and a trafficking in persons technical sub-group. Mexico will exchange information with U.S. officials regarding the identification of offenders and investigations underway in Mexico. The United States and Mexico will also work collaboratively on other assistance and information projects related to trafficking in persons, using separate funding from the U.S. President’s Initiative Against Trafficking in Persons.

Click here to see the press release about this agreement.

On August 30, 2005, joined by Mexican Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources José Luis Luege, I attended an event with many high-level government officials from numerous departments and private sector representatives to announce a U.S.-Mexico joint initiative that will support President Bush's Methane to Markets Initiative. Under our new Methane to Markets partnership, the U.S. government will invest over $600,000 in Mexico over the next three years to capture and productively use methane emissions from gas pipeline leaks, sanitary landfills, coal mines and animal wastes. We also will provide technical assistance and support pilot projects.

The Methane to Markets Partnership announced by President Bush, and supported by this agreement, is just one example of America’s commitment to develop and share technology that will increase energy security, improve environmental quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions around the world.

Click here to see my remarks.

In late August, Governor Eugenio Hernandez Flores of Tamaulipas invited U.S. Mission officials to participate in an important public meeting in Nuevo Laredo to announce the Governor’s plan to back an integral security and justice reform effort for the state. Rather than holding the event in the state capital Ciudad Victoria, the Governor held the event in the center of the border security storm -- Nuevo Laredo -- securing the attendance of mayors from around the state, state legislators, prominent business people, U.S. government officials, and civic leaders. In July, during a visit to Mexico City, we encouraged the Governor and Tamaulipas officials to gain and display consensus among all parties and on both sides of the border to reduce the threat of violence in the region. This integrated meeting was a good start on the path to taking back the border from those who seek to destroy the fabric of U.S. and Mexican life there.

Click here to see the press release in Spanish from the government of the state of Tamaulipas or a brief news report in English.

Finally, as many of you may know, on Sunday, September 4, 2005, my father, Antonio Oscar Garza, passed away in Brownsville, Texas. As you might imagine, this has been a difficult time for me, and I have been encouraged and uplifted by your many kind expressions of sympathy. I thank you all for your support, thoughts, and prayers.

As always, thank you for the opportunity to share with you the activities of our Mission in Mexico. May God bless Mexico and the United States.

With best wishes, I am

Sincerely,

Antonio O. Garza

If you would like more information about the events mentioned in this letter or other Embassy initiatives, please visit our website located at http://mexico.usembassy.gov

Please feel free to email us, if you are not interested in receiving future updates.