Before the UN Security Council, Mexico called for the establishment of international mechanisms to monitor and prevent illicit arms transfers, trade diversion and cross-border trafficking, both at “destination and at origin.”
At the headquarters of the United Nations (UN), the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, highlighted that the government of Mexico filed a lawsuit against private companies in the United States for intentional and negligent practices in the production and commercialization of weapons that promote illegal trafficking. “The companies that produce and distribute these weapons, with irresponsible practices, maintain abundant and rising incomes.”
In his capacity as temporary president of the Council, Ebrard described the conflicts and passages of violence caused by weapons in the countries as alarming, since he argued that every day, around 500 people lose their lives and another 2,000 are injured by gunshots. of fire in the world.
He indicated that in Latin America there are annual figures of violence and deaths from firearms that are even higher than those observed in several of the areas in which an armed conflict is recognized. “In about 75% of homicides and femicides a weapon of this nature is involved,” he said.
For this reason, he stated that, “our actions, as an international community, must recognize that the fight against trafficking and diversion, both at the place of destination and at its origin, is a shared responsibility.”
He stressed that to curb this phenomenon, there are instruments such as the Arms Trade Treaty, the Program of Action and the International Tracing Instrument and the Protocol against Illicit Traffic in Firearms of the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. However, he considered insufficient for the UN Security Council to promote and strengthen weapons and ammunition management schemes, since it is necessary, he said, to attend to the complete life cycle of weapons, including intermediation, transfer and end users. .
He suggested the generation of rigorous statistical bases and accurate diagnoses on the dynamics, routes and trends of arms trafficking and diversion in situations of armed conflict and on their humanitarian consequences.
They react to demand
US companies responded to the lawsuit, for negligence in the commercialization of arms, that the Mexican government does not demonstrate that there is a clear link between the organizations that sell and the Mexican cartels, so they asked that their demand be dismissed.
“The injuries declared by the (Mexican) government are derived from violence committed by third-party criminals in Mexico, mostly using weapons that the defendants do not manufacture or sell, and that they obtain through a long and attenuated chain of other criminal actors. independent. Against this background fact – detailed in the complaint itself – Mexico does not allege that any of its injuries are quite traceable to any named defendant (company). For this reason alone, the case should be dismissed ”, argued companies such as Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co, among nine others.
The Foreign Ministry reported yesterday that on January 31, 2022 it will respond to the arguments of the armories.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx