Details the Center for American Progress that, from 2011 to 2016, 70% of the weapons used in crimes came from that nation
In six years, the Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information of the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives of the United States (ATF, for its acronym in English) recovered in Mexico 98 thousand 654 weapons.
According to data from the ATF, of the total of weapons recovered between 2012 and 2017, 70% (69 thousand 140) arrived from the United States.
An analysis conducted in 2018 by the Center for American Progress also found that, from 2011 to 2016, 70% of the 106,000 weapons used in violent crimes in Mexico and recovered by the police had come from the United States.
After the Obama administration authorization granted in 2009 for 2,500 weapons to be illegally purchased and transported to Mexico, under the Fast and Furious operation, the US authorities maintain the tracking and recovery of weapons that arrive in our country.
According to the ATF Firearms Tracking System, of the more than 98,000 weapons recovered, 46.71% are pistols; 31.46%, rifles; 13.90%, revolvers, 5.66%, shotguns, and 2.23% other weapons.
Of the total number of weapons from the United States found in Mexico, only 1,744 were transferred under federal license to a foreign government, to the police or to a merchant, that is, 2.52 percent.
Recovers US 98 thousand weapons in Mexico
In almost half of the cases the buyer was not identified, according to the ATF; they dominate arms of the neighbor of the north in violent crimes.
The Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information of the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) of the United States reported that between 2012 and 2017 it recovered and tracked 98,654 firearms in Mexico, that is, 45 daily on average .
After the ATF allowed in 2009 2,500 weapons were illegally bought and transported to Mexico, under the Fast and Furious operation, the US authorities maintain the tracking and recovery of weapons that arrive in Mexico, which are not necessarily linked to a crime.
Regarding the type of weapons, of all those that were located in Mexico, the majority corresponds to pistols, with 46 thousand 87 (46.71%); followed by rifles with 31,46 (31.46%); then, the revolvers, with 13,722 (13.90%); in the penultimate place the shotguns, with 5 thousand 590 (5.66%), and finally, other weapons such as machine guns, pocket guns, tear gas launchers and silencers, with 2,209 elements recovered (2.23 percent).
Most of the weapons that the ATF located in Mexico come from the United States, because of all the 69 thousand 140 found came from our neighbor to the north, that is, 70.08%. Of these, 51,330 weapons were manufactured in the United States (52.03%) and 17,810 were made in another country, but were imported into the United States and then arrived in Mexico (18.05%). Likewise, 29 thousand 514 firearms were recovered whose country of origin is not the United States or it was not possible to determine it (29.91%).
Additionally, the ATF reported that, of the weapons located from the United States, from 2012 to 2017, in most of the traces the buyer was not determined, that is, 33 thousand 790 cases, which represents 48.87 percent; while in 32 thousand 046 cases it was possible to track the first retail buyer, which is equivalent to 46.34 percent; and, only in a thousand 744 cases could it be determined that they were transferred with a federal license to a foreign government, to the police or to a merchant, that is, 2.52 percent.
An analysis conducted in 2018 by the Center for American Progress found that, from 2011 to 2016, 70% of the 106,000 weapons used in violent crimes in Mexico and recovered by the police had come from the United States.
According to the study center itself, the main flow of illegal firearms and ammunition into our country originates in the United States. It is estimated that more than 213 thousand weapons enter each year through the black market to Mexico.
On the other hand, the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH) noted in its study “Serious violations of human rights: The legal and illegal arms trafficking to Mexico” (2018) that between 2006 and 2010, the ATF registered 2,921 legal firearms transactions in the United States whose weapons were later found in Mexico. The majority of these commercial exchanges occurred in Texas, with 1,470 cases (50.32%) and in Arizona with 852 incidents (29.16%).
During this period, the CMDPDH also points out that, of the weapons acquired in the United States, the majority was recovered in Tamaulipas with 639 weapons, followed by Sonora with 521; Nuevo León with 206 weapons; Mexico City with 163; Sinaloa with 153; and Chihuahua with 119 firearms recovered.
MORE HOMICIDES
For David Ramírez de Garay, of Mexico Evalúa, the increase of firearms used in intentional homicides is due to the lack of control and registration that the Federation has over the armament, as well as to the great flow of illegal weapons that there are mainly of States United towards our country. To say of Mexico Evaluates, every time there is more arms available for the Mexicans, but the control that is had on them at the state and federal level is almost null.
The oversupply of weapons in the country has also impacted the intentional homicides with guns. In 2015, 16,121 investigations were initiated for intentional homicide at the national level. Of that total, “firearms were used in nine thousand 210 cases, which means that 57% of the murders that year were shot, according to statistics from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP)” ( Excelsior 05/27/19).
By 2019, that proportion rose to 70%, because until last April there were nine thousand 549 folders for intentional homicide, of which, in six thousand 716 the use of firearms was established to kill the victims.
LESS CONFISCTIONS
According to the CMDPDH, the number of firearms recovered by the Mexican authorities has gone into a tailspin since 2012, “which reflects the little importance given to the recovery of arms in Mexico with respect to other objectives aimed at compliance with the law. law”. While in 2012 the Mexican Army recovered 20 thousand 670 weapons, by 2017 the figure collapsed to five
thousand 82.
THEY ROBBED 20 THOUSAND POLICE FORCES
One of the factors that contributes to the increase in violence in Mexico is the diversion of legally obtained firearms. Since 2006, more than 20,000 firearms acquired by the Federal Police and state police have been lost or stolen, according to official sources.
According to the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, the instances to which said weaponry was sold include state police and judicial police, while on the federal side are the Federal Police, the FGR or bodies dependent on the Secretariat of Justice. Governance.
Additionally, several states reported an alarming percentage of lost or stolen weapons in the years from 2010 to 2016, compared to the number of weapons sold by the Sedena to state and federal police forces. In Guerrero, for example, police reported that during that time 20 percent of the weapons they had acquired were stolen or lost, while Tamaulipas reported 11 percent of weapons that were lost or stolen. On average, 4 percent of the weapons sold to all state police in the country had been reported as lost or stolen during that same period
Source: excelsior
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