Mexico sues US arms manufacturers for failing to prevent illegal trafficking

The Mexican government filed a lawsuit against major US arms manufacturers and distributors in a federal court in Boston on Wednesday, arguing

that their negligent business practices have sparked bloodshed in Mexico.

"This lawsuit is two years of work. It is a legal action that could be successful against those who produce the weapons that are intimately linked to the violence that Mexico is experiencing today and that has lived throughout the 21st century," said Marcelo Ebrard, secretary of Foreign Relations of Mexico, in a meeting with the media.

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Ebrard said that the increase in the availability of weapons caused an increase in violence in his country and specified that it is a civil lawsuit for damages that was filed against the manufacturers to compensate the Mexican Government "

for the damages caused by their practices. negligent ".

"The amount of this demand will be determined in the trial," he added.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts, and consists of a 139-page document alleging the alleged responsibility of some 10 American companies, including companies such as

Smith & Wesson, Barrett Firearms, Beretta, Century International Arms, Colt's Manufacturing Company, Glock

, Sturm, Ruger & Co, and Witmer Public Safety Group, among others.

Smith & Wesson guns at a June 2016 show in Las Vegas. AP

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The Mexican government argues that these companies know that their practices contribute to arms trafficking to Mexico and facilitate it.

"The companies argue that when [the weapons] go on sale and commercialization they no longer have any responsibility, but they do have it and

of course they have accurate information if someone acquires five Barretts of 50, and if they buy them three times they

also have all that information ", assured Ebrard.

The lawsuit calls for manufacturers to implement reasonable, verifiable standards to monitor and discipline distributors because, according to Ebrard, they know the final destination of many of their products.

In addition, it requires that

security mechanisms

be

incorporated into weapons so that they can be prevented from being used by unauthorized persons

or persons linked to crime in order to prevent illicit trafficking.

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Ebrard assured that manufacturers are developing models that "have different types of arrangements from the aesthetic and use point of view" to be used by drug trafficking.

The Mexican government "initiates this action to end the massive damage that the defendants cause by actively facilitating the illegal trafficking of their weapons to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico," the lawsuit says.

70% of the arms that are trafficked to Mexico come from the United States

, according to the Ministry of Foreign Relations.

And in 2019 alone, at least 17,000 homicides were linked to arms trafficking, he adds.

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Alejandro Celorio, legal adviser to the Mexican Foreign Ministry, told reporters on Wednesday that the damage caused by trafficked weapons would be equivalent to

1.7% to 2% of Mexico's Gross Domestic Product

.

Last year, Mexico's GDP was more than 1.2 trillion dollars.

The government could thus seek compensation of at least 10 billion dollars, Celorio said.

"We are not doing it to pressure the United States," he said, "we are doing it so that there are no deaths in Mexico." 

"We do not seek to change US laws

,

"

said Ebrard.

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“If we don't make a demand of this nature, and if we don't win it, they won't understand.

They will continue to do the same and

we will continue to have deaths every day in our country,

"said Ebrard.

He also specified that Mexico presented 17 actions to the United States that are working together to attack this problem and this action "does not replace other efforts."

"

Mexico has to do more and better to control its border

, in fact, we have to think about another type of supervision of the border against weapons and that is what we are doing," he explained.

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The sale of firearms is severely restricted in Mexico and is controlled by the authorities.

But thousands of weapons are smuggled in by the country's powerful drug cartels.

Last year there were

more than 36,000 murders in Mexico

and the number of victims remains alarmingly high despite President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's promise to pacify the country.

In 2020, the national homicide rate stood at 29 per 100,000 residents.

By comparison, the U.S. homicide rate in 2019 was 5.8 per 100,000 residents.

In August 2019, a gunman killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, including some Mexican nationals.

At the time, Ebrard said the government would explore its legal options.

According to Mexican authorities, recent rulings by US courts contributed to their decision to file the lawsuit.

They cited a California decision that allowed Smith & Wesson to sue, a lawsuit filed last week against Century Arms related to a 2019 shooting in Gilroy, California, and a $ 33 million settlement reached by some families whose children died in the mass shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut school.

With information from AP, The Washington Post and the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations.