U.S. and Mexico Governments Indifferent to Violent Effects of Arms Trafficking to Mexico Sergio Aguayo - Reforma
go to original September 28, 2014

One reason to be discouraged is our last two governments’ indifference towards life. Hope is reborn when people use the weapons at their disposal.

Fist fighting is not the same as fighting with a "goat horn" [AK-47]. Violence is so lethal in Mexico because over 15 million illegal weapons are in circulation (PGR, Attorney General, figure in 2008). Two-thirds came from the United States, where you can even buy an assault rifle online.

Arms trafficking is uncontrollable because in the United States there is a real power that is just as or more powerful than the trilogy formed by Emilio Azcárraga, Germán Larrea, and Carlos Slim [telecom business owners]. The National Rifle Association (NRA) halts public policies that attempt to control gun sales. By either coincidence or impotence the White House ends up giving in to the NRA.

Budgets reflect the priorities of governments. In 2012 the United States had 18,546 agents dedicated to curbing migration on the border with Mexico. That same year there were only 421 agents in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) fighting against the smuggling of weapons to Mexico.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Thomas Mosley

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx.

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