report
Status: 10/11/2022 03:17 am
About 200,000 US guns are smuggled into Mexico every year. The Mexican government is now suing their manufacturers again. Meanwhile, the suffering of the people goes on.
It was December 9, two years ago, Maria remembers. Her nephew had left the house at around 6 a.m., as he did every morning, to run to the meeting place for the harvest workers in the center of town. A pickup takes the young men from there to lime fields.
But just before he reached the meeting point, a motorcycle with two young men raced towards him: one fired at him three times with a gun. A bullet caught him fatally in the head.
Just why did this happen? He was still so young, almost a child. 15 years old. Shortly after that, people were tearing their mouths apart. He was certainly involved in dealings with the criminal gangs. All he did was work and sleep. He didn’t even have a gun.
Repeated violent clashes
When she thinks about it, she’s still desperate. After that she couldn’t work for a whole year, she says. Violent clashes between the two predominant criminal groups in the town: Carteles Unidos and the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel. Last one year ago.
Not far from Maria’s house, a residential building is completely riddled with holes. For five days, the residents of Buenavista could not go out on the streets – they heard shots day and night. The cartels have no shortage of weapons. You can get them on the black market – from a simple handgun to AK-47 type assault rifles.
Up to 90 percent of guns come from the United States illegally
Between 70 and 90 percent of guns are illegally smuggled into Mexico from the United States. The Mexican government wants to take action against this. A year ago, she filed a lawsuit against gun manufacturers such as Smith & Wesson and other companies.
The lax way in which guns are sold in the United States makes them easier for criminals to gain access to, the accusation has been made. The Mexican government had demanded $10 billion in damages and reparations.
200,000 guns a year
Although the lawsuit was dismissed after a year by the competent judge in the United States, the Mexican government is now appealing, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced.
In about a year we confiscated 55,996 guns. Of these, 21,430 are long powerful weapons. The illicit trade in these weapons far exceeds, in number and power, anything we buy for our military and police forces in a year.
It is estimated that around 200,000 guns are smuggled into Mexico every year.
Immunity for the arms industry
Although the court feels sympathy for the people of Mexico, it is bound by the law, the judge stressed. In the opinion of Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, the US judge has nevertheless ruled in favor of Mexico.
In other words: the origin of the weapons is proven. It has been proven that they were responsible for these weapons. And they are responsible for murders in Mexico. However, the judge upheld the 2005 law passed in the United States that grants the gun industry immunity from the use of the guns.
The Mexican government has now launched a second lawsuit. It targets five specific arms dealers in neighboring Arizona, Ebrard said in a video message. Gun shops located in the cities of Tucson, Phoenix and Yuma have now been targeted in the new case. They are said to have systematically sold weapons to straw men who acted on behalf of organized crime.
And the smuggled weapons also end up in the hands of young people in Buenavista, Maria criticizes.
The local boys think joining a cartel and having a gun is for the best. They think it’s the best job they can get. Even at 14 or 15 years old. That’s normal here.