Mexico has impounded 40,000 weapons in the last four years

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Milenio article

Subject Matter: Weapons smuggling from USA to Mexico
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Rafael Montes
The Chancellor Claudia Ruiz Massieu alerted that in four States of the USA that make up the frontier with Mexico there exists no less than 9000 legal outlets that sell firearms and more than 23,000 licenses for selling arms over the Internet or in outlets like supermarkets, " that endow the transnational criminal organizations with enormous firepower."

In her participation in the second Conference of the States that are party to the Treaty on the arms trade of the United Nations, commented that this facility to purchase weapons at the border translates into the fact that 70% of the weapons seized by Mexican authorities are from buyers or distributors of the United States, and that 60 % of the confiscated weapons are manufactured in the USA.




She explained that between December of 2012 and July of 2016, Mexico has seized 40,000 weapons, 23,000 of those being large calibre high powered weapons, 4,000 grenades and 5.6 million rounds of ammunition.

For that reason, Ruiz Massieu made a call to the Treaty signatories to commit to its regulation and surveillance of the trade of weapons world wide.

She expounded that " actually, the value of commercial arms sales represent around 100,000 million dollars, that amounts to double the annual total of official aid to development provided by members of the OECD to the poorer countries of the world."

"In respect of the illegal trade, its constitutes one of the activities most lucrative to criminal organizations, comparable with the trafficking of drugs or people, so there is no room for euphemisms and excuses, because the reality is imposed with pain and rawness".

She added that every year, close to a million people worldwide are killed because of conventional arms, and that they are the principal cause of death on a global scale.

On average 1500 lives a day are lost, a large proportion of which are innocent civilians, women and children, including zones where there is no armed conflict, half a million people die each year because of this motive.

Before the gathering, she invited the member states to present  national report alerts on the sales of weapons, and to establish a trust fund for control of the transfer of weapons, so there Governments and not the companies involved, which control the exchanges, establish a group of independent experts who can evaluate the magnitude, and impact of transfers of small arms and light weapons.

As well as asking for a reinforcement of the dialogue and interchange of experiences with the civil societies.

She also expressed that in order for Mexico to eradicate the illegal commercial sale of arms is one of the more delicate demands, and that the international community discusses the irrational violence that these sales generate.

"We are witnesses  of the tragedies that happen because of the illegal trade in Siria, Iraq or Libya, with non State sponsored armed groups, In Mexico and Latin America, with the criminal organizations, in Germany, Belgium France or Turkey, with terrorist attacks, and in Norway or the United States, with mass assassinations," she lamented

She said that experts estimate that there are 875 million small and light arms, that every year they produce 8 million more, and 12 million rounds of ammunition, " it means that there are 2 rounds of ammunition in circulation for every person on the planet.

Free sales

* In the United States there are around 56,500 arms dealers. Since 2005 assault weapons have been free to buy in USA territory.

* California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, are that States that produce the major worry for the Mexican authorities.

* 30 % of the arms decommissioned in Mexico are of European fabrication and 10% are produced in the rest of the world.

* The trafficking of arms to Mexico has converted into the second most important crime committed by organized criminals.

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Original article in Spanish at Milenio