Frequently, news articles on the border separating North America’s two most populous countries highlight the region’s issues with drug and human trafficking, focusing almost exclusively on people and substances that unlawfully enter the US, but what about smuggling in the opposite direction? Are illicit materials originating in the US fueling issues in its southern counterpart?
As it turns out, the US is indeed the major source of illegally owned firearms in Mexico; the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that between 2014 to 2018, over 70 % of firearms recovered in Mexico were traced to the US, which has led the Mexican government to file two lawsuits against US corporations in the last two years.
Mexicans do have the right to own handguns or hunting rifles, which can be purchased from a sole, heavily regulated gun store based in Mexico City and operated by the Mexican army. However, the relative ease with which a greater variety of firearms can be acquired across the border and smuggled into Mexico contributes to the largely foreign origin of the weapons. Drug cartels particularly favor the higher caliber, more deadly firearms that can be sourced from the US. Between 2010 and 2018, data from the firearms recovered by the Mexican Army indicated that the make of about 60% of all .50-caliber weapons recovered was distinguishable, and that only one of these was not American made. A 2021 BBC article highlights that weapons specifically trafficked from the US were connected to 17,000 violent deaths in Mexico in 2019 alone.
Last year, the Mexican government filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts, aiming to hold several US gun manufacturers responsible for enabling weapon access for drug cartels, suing for $10bn in damages. In a February 2022 lecture from Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center, Alejandro Celorio Alcántara, the legal advisor of Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Relations, stresses that the lawsuit was not directed at the US government or the 2nd Amendment, but rather at the negligence of companies knowingly selling the weapons that cartels use in brutal crimes. Referring to the half million weapons entering Mexico from the US each year, he notes that “there’s a direct correlation between the number of firearms in Mexico and the rates and the number of homicides committed in crimes.''
Celoro shared that following the 2019 shooting in Texas where 22 people, mostly Mexicans, were killed by a white supremacist with a semi-automatic rifle, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs first urged Celoro to work towards a lawsuit to prevent such a tragedy from reoccurring. The lawsuit solidified after several attacks by criminal organizations utilizing firearms that aren’t permitted in Mexico but can be purchased in the US.
Eventually a federal judge dismissed the initial case in September 2021, but as of October 10 of this year, Mexico’s government has filed another lawsuit against gun dealers, this time in Arizona. Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, shared information in a video posted on Twitter, emphasizing the responsibility of the Arizona stores in conscientiously selling firearms that were later used in serious crimes in Mexico. In the video, Ebrard stresses the importance of the lawsuit “Porque si no paramos este flujo tremendo de armas hacia México, ¿cómo vamos a frenar la violencia aquí?” [Because if we don’t stop this huge influx of firearms into Mexico, how are we going to curb the violence here?]. He also points out that if the US wants help to reduce drug trafficking, they should also be assisting Mexico in diminishing the illicit weapon trafficking. Ebrard concludes with a note of resilience: we’re not giving up.
The Mexican government’s lawsuit against these US firearm stores provides an important reminder of the international implications of seemingly national issues. Illegal items originating in the US have severe implications for Mexico just as products smuggled from Mexico affects the US.
As Celorio reminds viewers of the February lecture, in order to tackle pollution in a river, we must deal with the source. Similarly, Mexico hopes to address the source of the trafficked weapons used in the nation’s violent crimes.
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