The US is under increasing pressure to stop the flow of military weapons into Mexico and much of Latin America that support the cartels there that are driving America’s fentanyl and immigration crises.
Mexico has filed a civil lawsuit against US gun manufacturers for arming the drug gangs, and activists say it is in America’s best interest to curb the flow of guns to the South.
They describe an “iron river” of thousands of firearms coming from US dealers ending up in the hands of criminals in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and much of Latin America.
More than half of the “crime weapons” recovered and traced in Central America come from the US, the US arms control agency ATF says. In Mexico and the Caribbean, about four-fifths come from the US.
Weapons seized from Chapitos gang in Mexico City. Experts say about four-fifths of the guns used by drug cartels come from US suppliers
Lawlessness and cartel crime in Mexico were put in the spotlight by the “tummy tuck four” group of Americans who were kidnapped and two of them shot dead by Mexican mobsters in March.
Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have called for US crackdowns, including special forces attacks on cartels, but conservatives have also opposed gun control efforts.
“It’s called the Iron River and it’s inundating countries in the South,” said Elizabeth Burke of the nonprofit organization Global Action on Gun Violence at a event at a think tank this week in Washington DC
This makes America a hotspot for homicide.
More than half of the world’s gun violence is concentrated in just six countries: Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela and the US, says the Center for American Progress.
Burke called for rules that prevent gun manufacturers from selling to dealers with lax distribution practices.
Manufacturers should also stop selling armor-piercing weapons and rifles that can be easily modified to fire hundreds of bullets at once, she added.
John Lindsay-Poland, a Stop US Arms to Mexico activist, said lax gun rules and enforcement have fostered the cross-border flow of arms, including military-grade weapons used by cartel paramilitaries.
“Why should we arm the very people we say we’re fighting against?” said Lindsay Poland.
Mexico’s heavily armed cartels are behind much of the production and trafficking of fentanyl and other drugs that lead to more than 100,000 overdose deaths in the US each year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They also prey on the thousands of migrants who travel through Central America and Mexico to reach the southern US border, where illegal migration is at an all-time high.
“Gun violence is a cancer that drives immigration from Mexico and Central America,” Diego Rodriguez, a Democratic politician from Arizona, posted on Twitter this week.
Burning vehicles are seen on the street during an operation to arrest cartel members in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico, in January
Members of the Lebaron family mourn as they watch the burnt-out car in which family members were killed and burned during an ambush by gunmen in Mexico’s Sonora mountains
“We must address arms trade as part of any immigration reform package.”
US government figures show revenue from legal firearm shipments to Latin America rose 8 percent last year, with most sales going to Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia.
The ‘iron river’ ‘floods countries in the South’ with guns, says Elizabeth Burke of Global Action on Gun Violence
Ioan Grillo, the author or Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels, says more than 179,000 firearms were captured in Mexico and five Central American countries between 2007 and 2019 and traced to US gun shops and factories.
Mexican officials say this number is just the tip of the iceberg, as many more guns remain in criminal hands.
They come from the legal but poorly regulated gun market in America.
Purchases are usually private sales, or made by so-called “straw buyers” with a blank paper. Guns are stolen from shops, or “ghost guns” that are assembled from parts without serial numbers, Grillo says.
Traffickers buy guns in Virginia, Georgia and other states with looser gun laws, hide them in cars and trucks and drive them across the 2,000-mile porous and poorly guarded border into Mexico, he said.
Some are stowed away in Florida cargo ships bound for the Caribbean and beyond.
“In the past two years, the conversation has changed. When the issue of drug trafficking is discussed, it’s now harder not to talk about ‘gun running south,'” Grillo tweeted this week.
Fentanyl was originally manufactured in India and China and shipped to recipients in North America. Since then, makeshift laboratories have sprung up in Mexico to receive the precursor chemicals from Asia, mix them or crush them into pills and smuggle them into the US
This image from Mexico’s National Armed Forces shows a makeshift drug lab in northwestern Mexico where agents discovered chemical precursors, fentanyl paste, weapons and drug-making equipment, as of November 2021
“But the iron river keeps flowing, and cartel shooters fight on with brand new AR-15s, Kalashnikovs and 50 cals.”
Mexico last month appealed a $10 billion civil lawsuit to hold US arms manufacturers responsible for facilitating the trade of deadly weapons across the border.
The case was dismissed by a US judge in September.
The appeal is against Smith and Wesson Brands and Sturm, Ruger and Co, as well as Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc, Beretta USA Corp, Colt’s Manufacturing Co, Century International Arms Inc, Witmer Public Safety Group Inc and gun maker Glock Inc.
Sixteen U.S. states and a handful of Caribbean governments last month expressed support for Mexico’s appeal of the ruling.
US gun manufacturers have maintained that they legally sell firearms to Americans who pass background checks.
Their lawyers have argued that holding them accountable opens the door to other lawsuits, such as the deaths of Russians killed by their guns in Ukraine.
The National Rifle Association and the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Maria Herrera, a Mexican mother of four missing sons who founded a group investigating enforced disappearances, said gun deaths were on the rise.
“We don’t want more tragedies in our families,” said Herrera, a mother of eight.
It destroys lives, breaks families apart, fills communities with pain and panic. We can’t live like that.’
Wires contributed to this report.