More than 3.9 million crimes in Mexico a year are committed with a weapon manufactured in the United States, and between 70% and 90% of the weapons secured at crime scenes have been illegally trafficked from that country, the Mexican government said in its civil lawsuit for damages against manufacturers in the United States.
Of the total U.S. weapons recovered in violent crimes, 68.4% have been produced by only seven companies, which were the subject of the Mexican government’s lawsuit: Smith &wesson, Beretta, Century Arms, Colt, Glock, Ruger and Barrett; distributor Interstate Arms was also sued.
The civil lawsuit, filed by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs (SRE) in the Massachusetts District Court in Boston, accuses the manufacturers of having “flooded” the country with illegally trafficked weapons; of having “victimized” the Mexican government and its population, and, in general, of having “written a horror story” on this side of the border.
Find out | Mexico Responsible for Rampant Crime, U.S. Arms Industry Responds
The 139-page indictment alleges that these companies are responsible for arming drug cartels and other criminal groups, and accuses them of negligence in their business practices, which include supporting corrupt distributors, for the sake of making millions in profits.
The document estimates that, of the 873 thousand weapons that are annually introduced to Mexico from the United States through illegal trafficking, between 342 thousand and 597 thousand emerged from the accused manufacturers and sellers. The profits made by these would be around 170 million dollars a year.
The complaint alleges that the defendant companies are aware that their weapons, most of which are for military use, end up in the hands of Mexican cartels and that they are used in drug trafficking activities, homicides, kidnappings, and extortion; he even points out that some weapons are produced or designed specifically for the taste of drug traffickers.
The document mentions some of the violent cases in which weapons manufactured by the defendant companies were used. For example, in the attack on Mexico City’s Secretary of Citizen Security, Omar García Harfuch, on June 26, 2020, three .50-caliber Barrett rifles, a Smith &Wesson 9 mm pistol, a Smith & Wesson 5.56 mm rifle, a Ruger 5.56 mm rifle, and a Colt 5.56 mm rifle were found.
Another example is the persecution and temporary detention of Ovidio Guzmán, son of Chapo Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. The indictment states that the hitmen outpowered the Armed Forces with .50-caliber Barrett rifles, AK-47 and AR-15 assault weapons, and Beretta and Glock handguns.
“Weapons of several of the defendants (the manufacturers) were used by hitmen in a shootout with the National Guard, the Army and police (…). But the hitmen who arrived at the scene achieved superiority of fire having vehicles mounted with heavy weapons and weapons of several of the defendants,” the court document quotes.
In the murder of journalist Miroslava Breach, in 2017, a short gun from Colt, the company responsible for manufacturing more than 2 thousand assault weapons recovered in Mexico between 2006 and 2018, was also used, according to the lawsuit.
“Colt doesn’t even try to hide his complacency with the criminal market in Mexico. Colt produces three models of weapons that are specifically aimed at the Mexican market. These are the .38 caliber pistol ‘El Jefe’, the caliber .88 ‘El Grito’, and the caliber .38 ‘Emiliano Zapata 1911’. These models are status symbols and are coveted by drug cartels, and are trafficked into Mexico from the United States in large quantities,” the complaint cites.
He adds that the murder of Miroslava Breach – an investigative journalist in circles of drug trafficking, corruption and human rights violations – was committed precisely with a Colt “Emiliano Zapata” gun, a revolutionary symbol of freedom. The lawsuit calls this situation a “cruel irony.”
The importance of the Mexican criminal market for gun manufacturers is such that, according to the complaint, 47% of U.S. distributors would go bankrupt if it did not exist.
In turn, the Foreign Ministry said that the number of homicides with firearms in Mexico over the years has increased along with the increase in the production of weapons by such companies, which has caused the country to be the third place in the world in deaths by firearm.
“The percentage of homicides in Mexico committed with a gun rose from 25% in 2004 to more than 69% in 2018. (…) This increase was largely caused by the incrEmento in the production in the U.S. specifically of assault weapons, and their trafficking to Mexico,” the lawsuit says.
“A U.S.-made weapon is more likely to be used to murder a Mexican citizen (17 thousand in 2019) than an American citizen (14 thousand in 2019). And Mexico has only 40% of the U.S. population and only one gun shop (the Army).”
The indictment alleges that the Mexican State has been harmed financially by the negligent practices of the companies denounced, for example, by the costs related to medical care for victims of arms trafficking; deaths and injuries to security personnel; special training for military and police officers; mental health services for victims and their families; care of orphaned children; loss of efficiency and size of the working population; damage to community property;
In its final pages, the indictment mentions the names of people who have been victims of murder with firearms and briefly tells their stories. “They are not statistics,” the document states.
Mexico’s demand demands not only economic reparation from arms manufacturers, but that they implement verifiable standards to monitor their distributors and mechanisms to prevent weapons from being used by unauthorized persons or persons linked to crime.
“Were it not for the misconduct of the defendants, there would be far fewer weapons in Mexico, let alone weapons in the hands of the cartels. There would still be snakes – in the form of criminal organizations – but they would have much less venom to inflict harm,” the court document says.
In a statement, the Firearms Trade Industrial Association in the United States rejected that the increase in violence in Mexico is the responsibility of the companies that were denounced, and said that the blame lies with organized crime groups that operate with high margins of impunity.
Gun attacks double in Mexico, but seizures and investigations stall
Over the past six years, gun attacks that have left people dead or injured in the country have risen more than 100%. Currently, 7 out of 10 murders are committed with pistols or high-power rifles. However, neither seizures nor investigations related to their possession and use in Mexico have grown in the same proportion.
Official data provided by the country’s prosecutors’ offices to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System show that, in the first half of 2021, a total of 16,867 victims of attacks with firearms were recorded, of which 11,647 died and 5,220 were injured.
Meanwhile, in the same period but of 2015, the figure was 8,289 victims of armed aggression, of which, 5,25 were murders and 3,265 were injured.
This represents an increase of more than 103% in the total number of victims of these attacks. And in the specific case of intentional homicides, this is an increase of more than 131%.
The increase in gun violence has been progressive. While in the first half of 2015 intentional homicides with firearms amounted to 11,647, for the period from January to June 2016 they rose to 6,171; in 2017 to 9,231; in the same period of 2018 they reached 11,459; and in 2019 they reached 12,250.
In the first half of 2020, the total number of murders with firearms reached 12,666 victims, and only in 2021 was there a slight reduction with 11,647.
The proportion of murders committed with pistols and rifles of various types has also grown. In the first half of this year, the 11,647 homicides with firearms represented 69.7 percent of the total homicides committed. Put another way: 7 out of 10 murders were committed with these devices.
In 2015, on the other hand, the 5 thousand 24 murders with firearms represented 58.2% of all homicides recorded in that period. This is 10% less than the proportion currently recorded.
And in 1997, the oldest year on record, less than 30% of the murders that were counted were committed with a firearm.
Seizures and inquiries do not grow
Although the Mexican government maintains that the increase in arms trafficking across the border – acquired mainly by drug cartels – has fueled the spiral of violence, neither seizures nor investigations related to the carrying or use of firearms in our country have progressed in the same proportion.
For example, data from the permanent campaign to combat drug trafficking and L violationsey of Firearms that heads the Secretariat of National Defense show that in 2020 were seized, in total, 5 thousand 879 long and short weapons, an increase of only 6% compared to the 5 thousand 513 recovered in 2015. However, the proportion in which gun murders grew in the same period was over 100 per cent.
Something similar happens with the number of cartridges recovered. In the first half of this year, 947,508 cartridges of all calibers were seized, which, compared to the 922,853 insured in 2015, represents a marginal increase of 2.6%.
As for grenades secured, the figure even plummeted from 751 artifacts in 2015 to just 432 artifacts recovered in 2020.
The data for the first half of 2021 are even less favorable; in this period, 2,678 short and long weapons were recovered, an average that, if maintained, would yield a reduction by the end of the year compared to what was seized in 2020.
In the case of cartridges, only 264,075 have been recovered, 45% less than those that had been recovered in the first half of 2020.
For its part, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) initiated in 2020 a total of 14,416 investigation files for crimes related to violations of the Federal Law on Firearms and Explosives. These are cases related to the illegal carrying, storage and/or use of firearms that are also of calibers reserved for the armed forces.
Compared to 2015, when the number of folders started amounted to 15,353, this is a reduction of 6.11%.
That is to say, despite the increase in violence associated with firearms, which the Government of Mexico attributes to the increased production and trafficking of firearms from the United States, investigations related to this illicit activity in our country have been reduced.
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