About 70 percent of the guns seized in Mexico and submitted to a US gun-tracing program came from the US, according to a report released by three US senators on Monday.
Of the 29,284 firearms recovered by authorities in Mexico in 2009 and last year, 20,504 came from the US, according to figures provided to the senators by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Most of those weapons — 15,131 — were US made, while another 5,373 were of foreign manufacture, but had moved through the US into Mexico.
The ATF said the remainder of the weapons total — 8,780 arms — were of “undetermined origin due to insufficient information provided.” The figure of the number of guns arriving in Mexico from north of the border has been polemical ever since a June 2009 US report covering earlier years said that 87 percent of guns seized in Mexico came from the US.
While the report did not specify why the percentage had changed, the most recent figures appear to included more gun-trace reports, as the reporting program in Mexico became easier to use.
Evidence that US weapons trafficking has been fueling a bloody drug war that has cost more than 35,000 lives in Mexico since late 2006 has angered many Mexicans.
On Saturday, in a speech to the Mexican-American community in San Jose, California, Mexican President Felipe Calderon lashed out at the US weapons industry.
“I accuse the US weapons industry of [responsibility for] the deaths of thousands of people that are occurring in Mexico,” Calderon said. “It is for profit, for the profits that it makes for the weapons industry.”
The report, issued by US Senator Dianne Feinstein and two other senators, recommended background checks for sales at gun shows, a ban on the import of nonsporting weapons and the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban in force in the US until 2004.
Calderon endorsed calls for reinstating the ban on domestic sales of assault rifles, saying its expiration in 2004 may have played a roll in the increase of drug violence in Mexico.
“You can clearly see how the violence began to grow in 2005 and of course it has gone on an upward spiral in the last six years,” Calderon said.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS