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         The Mexico Solidarity Network is sponsoring a delegation of staff members from thirteen Congressional offices who will travel to Mexico from January 7-12. The delegation will spend January 7-9 in Chiapas investigating human rights in Indigenous communities. The delegation will meet with Bishop Samuel Ruiz, the Fray Bartolome Human Rights Center, Enlace Civil and the Center for Economic and Political Research. They will travel to the community of Acteal, site of a paramilitary massacre of 45 Indigenous civilians on December 22, 1997, and the community of X’oyep.

         From January 10-12 the delegation will be in Mexico City meeting with labor leaders from the Authentic Labor Front (FAT), human rights activists from Guerrero and Oaxaca, US Embassy officials, NGO’s that will monitor the July presidential elections, and Mexican government officials. Requests are currently pending for meetings with officials from Mexican Immigration and Gobernacion.

Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA, ranking Democrat on Subcommittee on International Operations) has taken the lead in organizing the delegation, which includes staff from co-chairs of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, Rep. John Porter (R-IL) and Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA).

The following Congressional offices are represented:
Cynthia McKinney (D-GA, International Relations, Armed Services) John Porter (R-IL, Appropriations) Tom Lantos (D-CA, International Relations, Government Reform) John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI, Judiciary-ranking member) Donald Payne (D-NJ, International Relations, Education & the Work Force) Tom Lantos (D-CA, International Relations, Government Reform) Marcy Kaptur (D-OH, Appropriations) John Oliver (D-MA, Appropriations) Bernard Sanders (I-VT, Appropriations, Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry) Michael Capuano (D-MA, Banking & Financial Services, Science) Peter DeFazio (D-OR, Resources, Transportation & Infrastructure) Diana DeGette (D-CO, Commerce) Constance Morella (R-MD, Government Reform, Science)

         This is the second Congressional delegation sponsored by the Mexico Solidarity Network. In March of 1999, seven Congressional offices visited Chiapas and Mexico City. The Mexico Solidarity Network is a coalition of 88 organizations that supports struggles for democracy, economic justice, peace and human rights on both sides of the US-Mexico border. The delegation is co-sponsored by Global Exchange.

         Tom Hansen, National Coordinator of the Network, was expelled from Mexico in 1998. In August of 1999, the Mexican Supreme Court overturned the expulsion. Mexican Immigration authorities have decided not to respect this decision and re-expelled Mr. Hansen in abstentia.