A federal judge in Massachusetts dismissed on Friday (September 30th) a complaint in which Mexico accused the main American arms manufacturers of encouraging the violence of Mexican drug traffickers, according to legal documents consulted by AFP.
“Unfortunately for the government of Mexico, all of its claims are prohibited by federal law or denied for other reasons”justified the judge Dennis Saylor. “Although the court has deep compassion for the Mexican people, and absolutely no compassion for those who supply arms to Mexican criminal organizations, it must respect the law”he added in a long document.
340,000 violent deaths since 2006
In August 2021, Mexico filed an unprecedented lawsuit against nine US arms manufacturers including Smith & Wesson, Beretta, Colt, Glock, Century Arms, Ruger and Barrett. The Mexican government accused them of illegal trade in its territory, estimating that between 70 and 90% of the weapons recovered from crime scenes in its country were trafficked from the United States.
Many weapons arrive in Mexican territory as part of what is commonly known as “Operation Hormiga”: intermediaries buy small quantities of weapons in the United States, where it is easy to acquire them, then bring them across the border. Mexico has been plagued by a wave of violence since the mid-2000s. Some 340,000 people have died there violently since 2006, when the government deployed the army to fight drug cartels.