#SendBackOurMarine: Calif. assemblywoman hand-delivers letter to Mexican president

Brett T. | 9:03 PM on August 26, 2014

SoCal CA State @asmMelendez, a Navy vet, said she gave Mex pres @EPN a letter asking him to look into case of US Marine Andrew #Tahmooressi

— Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) August 26, 2014

While California state assemblyman Tim Donnelly skipped lunch today with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to join demonstrators outside of the California governor’s mansion to protest the ongoing captivity of U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, state assemblywoman Melissa Melendez took advantage of the occasion to hand-deliver a letter to the president.

“Your government’s detention of Sergeant Tahmooressi stands in stark contrast to how the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has released on July 23, without undue delay, three armed Mexican police officers who accidentally crossed into the U.S.,” the letter reads. “These officers carried substantially similar weapons to those in Sergeant Tahmooressi’s possession and the officers’ expedited release as appropriate under the circumstances; so too, is the release of Sergeant Tahmooressi.”

“There is nothing more we would like to see than our two nations standing side-by-side in friendship and prosperity. The quick resolution of Sergeant Tahmooressi’s case will aid in that cause,” the letter concludes. The full text of the letter, signed by 19 assembly members including Melendez, can be read here.