Mexico launched Wednesday, August 4 an unprecedented legal action in the United States against the largest American arms manufacturers accused of encouraging violence by Mexican drug traffickers.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced on Wednesday that a complaint against the companies had been filed in federal court in Boston, in the northeastern United States.
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He denounced an "
illicit trade
" on Mexican territory which causes "
direct damage
" to the country.
“
We are confident in the legal quality of what we are presenting, we will plead with all the necessary seriousness.
We will win this trial and we will succeed in drastically reducing the illicit trafficking of arms in Mexico,
”Marcelo Ebrard added at a press conference.
“
Unprecedented
” procedure
Marcelo Ebrard said that "
the participation of a Mexican government in a dispute of this nature
" in an American court "
was unprecedented
", and that the approach had received the approval of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Among the companies accused by Mexico include Smith & Wesson, Beretta, Colt, Glock, Century Arms, Ruger and Barrett, which produce more than 68% of the more than half a million weapons smuggled into Mexico each year, according to the information contained in the Mexican complaint.
The foreign minister explained that the lawsuit aimed to have the manufacturers compensate the Mexican government for damage caused by their "
negligent practices
".
The complaint also calls for measures to "
monitor and bring in line
" manufacturers and distributors of weapons.
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Marcelo Ebrard even accused American manufacturers of developing types of weapons especially for Mexican drug dealers.
“
This is what these weapons are made for: to be bought.
They have more value, they have a different aesthetic and are used differently,
”explained the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Illegal arms trafficking is at the heart of bilateral relations between Mexico and its American neighbor, which is the main market for the powerful drug cartels.
More than 17,000 murders in Mexico in 2019 involved the use of weapons illegally imported from the United States, according to Mexican government data.
"
Symbolic
" action
The Department of Foreign Affairs legal team is supported by U.S. civil rights lawyers Steve Shadowen and Jonathan Lowy, also involved in gun violence prevention. Historian and analyst Lorenzo Meyer has confirmed that there is no precedent for such action by Mexico in US courts, although he has little hope that it will be successful. “
An army of lawyers will rise up against us during the trial. I see this more as a symbolic act, an element intended to put pressure
"on the arms manufacturers and the American administration, Meyer told AFP.
The expert recalled that Mexican demands had so far been limited to rhetorical demands, notably under the government of President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), who had launched a controversial anti-drug military offensive. Since 2006, Mexico has recorded some 300,000 murders, most of them linked to organized crime.
