Mexico Attacks United Nations on Arms Trade Agence France-Presse
go to original July 28, 2012

In February, Mexican President Felipe Calderon used a two-day visit to ultra-violent Ciudad Juarez to deliver a pointed message to the United States. Standing a stone's throw from the U.S.-Mexico border, and flanked by some of his government's top security officials, Calderon switched to English to say, "No more weapons!" (Los Angeles Times)

Mexico is criticizing the failure of UN member states to clinch an international treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar arms trade, saying a minority of countries blocked it.

In a statement, the Mexican foreign ministry highlighted a requirement that a consensus of the 193 members of the United Nations agree to the text.

The rule "makes it impossible to reach agreements when there is broad and clear support, which is nullified by the opposition of a minority of states," it said in the statement.

The negotiations at the United Nations ended Friday without agreement on the proposed treaty to regulate the estimated $US70 billion ($67 billion) of international trade in conventional weapons each year.

Some diplomats said Washington had refused to vote on the proposed treaty, demanding more time before the midnight deadline amid worries about a push back from the US Congress.
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Mexico has long insisted that weapons sold in the United States are fuelling a drug war within its borders that has left more than 50,000 dead over the past five and a half years.

"The Mexican government regrets that this international conference - which had generated great expectations in many countries and civil society - has not been able to end with the adoption of the agreement, despite the efforts made," the foreign ministry said.

Nevertheless, it said "the conference was able to advance considerably on a draft text that should be improved."

Mexico has argued for "an effective and robust treaty that prohibits the transfer of conventional arms when they risk being used to commit serious violations of international law and that establishes mechanisms to prevent their being diverted to the illicit market."

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