Government sought to sue gun shops since 2010

Reid’s firm, which was the main one, was willing to spend three million dollars to sue arms dealers in exchange for 23.5% of the net profits of a possible (win), that is, they believed they could win, they saw him viability therefore to the demand”.

Sergio Aguayo, academic from Colmex.

Mexico analyzed suing United States armories for the trafficking of their products to Mexico between 2010 and 2011, during the government of Felipe Calderón, said Colmex investigator Sergio Aguayo.

Within the framework of the forum “The business of lethality: arms trafficking to Mexico”, organized by the College of Mexico and within the framework of the Seminar on Violence and Peace, the academic maintained that there is evidence of the first agreements signed between the Calderón government and two law firms in the United States.

“The document is fascinating because it accepts that it is an important issue (…) Reid’s law firm, which was the main one, was willing to spend three million dollars to sue arms dealers in exchange for 23.5% of the net profits of a possible (success), that is, they believed they could win, therefore they saw the viability of the demand.

“The fact is that the Calderón government backed down, you don’t know why it backed down,” he said.

The expert added that “our country has become the headquarters of the main criminal organizations, the most powerful in the history of humanity.

“There is no precedent for the power organized crime has achieved anywhere in the world. You could say Sicily, but Sicily is a region of Italy, and here we are facing a challenge across the country.”

problem visibility

In the same forum, national and international experts described as courageous the decision of the Mexican government to promote lawsuits against companies that sell indiscriminate arms in the United States, since this will help set the agenda, create visibility of the damages, and eventually ensure that said companies self reform.

Isaac Morales Tenorio, coordinator for multinational security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), said that the demands promoted by the Mexican government “is not narrative (but) is a commitment by the Mexican government to observe how we can go, not immediately , at the multilateral time, position itself to deal with an issue like this”.

Alejandro Celorio Alcántara, legal consultant for the SRE, said that the lawsuits filed by Mexico in Arizona and Massachusetts against the arms companies were “because when we demanded that arms and ammunition be marked, (they said) no; because when we demanded that traceability be public, no.

“Because when monitoring and follow-up were required, no; because people continue to die in Mexico and the arms industry in the United States continues as unpunished as it has been for decades, that is why they are being sued.”

For his part, Jonathan Lowy, legal consultant to the Mexican government for lawsuits against gun stores in the US, said that international action is the way and the tool to address the violence, which is caused by a firearms industry without control and laws that allow these practices.

UN software

Meanwhile, John Brandolino, director of Treaty Affairs of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Unodc), stressed that illicit weapons are not the only cause of violence, but it is a determining factor.

It offered countries software to prevent arms manufacturing and trafficking.

He welcomed the fact that Mexico’s initiative has addressed for the first time in the UN Security Council the need for the marking and traceability of all weapons.

politica@eleconomista.mx