US guns kill more people in Mexico than in the US, research reveals

EFE.- American weapons kill more people in Mexico than in the United States, due to their illicit trafficking, which often ends up in the hands of organized crime, revealed this Friday the investigation “Foreign weapons in Mexico.”

“70% of the weapons with which homicides occur in Mexico come from the United States, and based on these statistics it is more likely that there are more homicides with US weapons in Mexico than in the United States,” said researcher John Lindsay-Poland, who moderated a panel made up of experts from the US, Mexico, Germany and Italy.

However, he stressed that the calculation made in the framework of the study is only “an estimate.”

Likewise, the responsibility of the states and the arms industry was exposed for not monitoring the exports that arrive in Mexico, above all, from the United States, but also from Europe, which are sometimes carried out by ignoring current legislation and treaties.

In this way, the speakers indicated, the weapons end up in the hands of organized crime or police institutions, with which homicides end up being committed.

“And in the United States they are not aware of it. The weapons that illegally arrive in Mexico are used to control and intimidate the Mexican population,” said Po Murray, a member of the US movement “Guns Down America.”

Lorena Reza, a member of the Regresando a Casa Morelos collective, pointed out the participation of these weapons in the disappearance, in 2007, of one of her brothers in Cuernavaca, capital of the central state of Morelos, and in the torture and homicide of another of her brothers.

“The weapons from the United States come here and destroy our families. We don’t want to continue like this anymore,” she said.

Leticia Sedou and Charlotte Kehne, experts from Belgium and Germany respectively, detailed how weapons exported from both countries were used in 2014 in the forced disappearance of 43 students in the state of Guerrero, known as the Ayotzinapa case.

“Italy is the main European exporter, especially of light weapons. These weapons are used by the police in human rights violations, such as in Ayotzinapa. The Iguala police had 63 Beretta brand rifles,” said Sedou, a member of the European Network Against Arms Trade.

For her part, Kehne assured that German-made G36 rifles were used in the disappearance of the young people, and that according to the legislation of that country they should never have reached Guerrero.

According to data reported by Mexico, within the framework of the Arms Control Treaty, between 2019 and 2021, 40,644 weapons were exported from Europe to Mexico, 24,395 for civilian use and 16,249 for military use.

“European companies are installing their production in the US, which allows them to have less strict export laws to export them to Mexico,” Sedou warned.

Source: Forbes