Mexico demands compensation from major US arms manufacturers

It is an unprecedented move for Mexico, as a sovereign state, to sue major US arms manufacturers and demand hefty damages "for encouraging violence by Mexican drug traffickers". The lawsuit, filed in a Boston court and announced by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, is a direct indictment of the US gunmakers, while at the same time putting the finger on one of the most tense chapters in US-Mexico relations.

The incessant cascade of murders in the country, which has reached the point of bringing it to the brink of what is commonly known as a failed state, has motivated this initiative by the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who does not shy away from blaming the lucrative business of arms dealers for sustaining and encouraging the growing insecurity in the country.

A report by the Observatorio Semáforo Delictivo puts the number of homicides registered in Mexico in 2019 at 34,648, and 34,515 in 2020. This represents a murder rate of 20 per 100,000 inhabitants. According to AMLO's government, 80% of these murders are linked to drug trafficking, and most of them were committed with weapons smuggled into Mexico.

In presenting his lawsuit, Minister Ebrard pointed out that the objective is to demand heavy compensation from Smith & Wesson, Beretta, Colt, Glock, Century Arms and Ruger & Barrett, companies that he directly accuses of producing at least 70% of the 500,000 weapons of all types, many of them "war weapons", illegally introduced into Mexican territory each year, which are responsible for a large part of the violent deaths.

Ebrard considers the legal quality of the lawsuit to be unquestionable, which is why he is confident that the US court will rule in Mexico's favour, and that such a hypothetical favourable ruling would be the beginning of the end of illegal arms trafficking, which in his opinion would immediately translate into a radical change in the fight against Mexican drug trafficking, whose cartels currently lead the world in drug revenues. The law firms of two US lawyers, Steve Shadowen and Jonathan Lowy, who are heavily involved in gun violence prevention, endorse the "legal quality" of the Mexican government's demand for justice.

The lawsuit also indirectly targets the US authorities by additionally calling for "measures to supervise and control arms manufacturers". The Mexicans relate this to a substantial part of the accusation: that the large arms manufacturers mentioned have developed various types of weapons specifically for Mexican drug traffickers.

Although there is not much optimism a priori about the final outcome of this unprecedented lawsuit, it is considered in the US judicial circles that it could open a significant breach with respect to the enormous power enjoyed by arms manufacturers and the practically free circulation and export of weapons. And, in any case, it adds a new framework of political pressure on Mexico vis-à-vis Washington.

On the other hand, this legal initiative by AMLO's government is not considered a completely clean move, at least by established specialists in investigating the ins and outs of drug trafficking. Two of them, José Luis Pardo Veiras, co-author of the indispensable book "Narcoamérica", and Íñigo Arredondo, coordinator of the Investigative Unit of the newspaper "El Universal", point out that under the guise of the alleged war against narco-terrorism, in addition to the tripling of homicides, what has increased has been the power of the army, which has gone from replacing a corrupt police force in its work to taking control of a large part of the country's economic sectors. Drug trafficking," say the two experts in a joint article in the Washington Post, "is not the beginning and end of Mexico's ills; it is a catalyst that has come to a country with a deep history of violence and impunity.

What is certain, moreover, is that since Felipe Calderón unleashed the war against narco-terrorism in 2006, it has already claimed 350,000 dead and 72,000 disappeared. At the same time, the army's involvement has grown exponentially: 50,000 soldiers dedicated to it under Calderón; 130,000 under Enrique Peña Nieto; and more than 150,000 under Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

For the authors cited above, this indicates that military influence has permeated not only all security forces. The drug war narrative has also served as an umbrella for historical corruption and impunity in the administration of justice.