Mexico’s Secretary of National Defense, Luis Crescencio Sandoval, has announced that 39,782 firearms have been seized in the country since December 2018 through last month. Sandoval has noted that there has been a significant increase in 50-caliber machine guns and Barrett rifles, extremely powerful US-produced weapons that can go through armored vehicles and which are believed to have been obtained illegally along the US border.
Buying a gun legally in Mexico is more complicated than in the United States, and only the Ministry of Defense has permission to do so, issuing a few permits per year. The gun seizure data give context to the Mexican government’s unease with US gun manufacturers, which it blames for the violence crisis in the country.
López Obrador’s administration has filed two lawsuits against US arms manufacturers, accusing them of illegal and negligent business practices that facilitate the illegal trafficking of weapons into Mexico. Although a previous lawsuit was dismissed by a Massachusetts judge, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced a new lawsuit in Arizona. The new federal legislation against illegal arms trafficking penalizes loan sharks and those who purchase weapons for criminal groups.
In Mexico, criminal groups backed by political and economic power confront authorities with increasingly powerful weapons, taking advantage of smuggling channels along the US border. Arms trafficking has led the Lopez Obrador government to hand over control of customs to the Armed Forces, and 70 percent of the weapons seized are believed to be of US origin and manufacture.