Emir Olivares and Alonso Urrutia
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, January 10, 2025, p. 3
The head of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), Alejandro Gertz Manero, asserted yesterday that there is a conspiracy
from the United States so that a large number of firearms from that country continue to illegally enter Mexico and fall into the hands of criminal groups.
In the morning of President Claudia Sheinbaum, the prosecutor stressed that this is a very serious problem, because it has increased the firepower of the cartels to an unprecedented level.
Gertz spoke of a recent report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the United States Department of Justice that recognizes that 74 percent of the pieces that enter Mexico illegally come from that country and that estimates an annual transfer in that direction of up to 200 thousand devices.
The official condemned the delay with which the US government responds to Mexican requests to face the problem. He recalled that the manufacture of equipment is an industrial process, which includes a catalog very clear
of production, the production chain and marketing.
And from the moment of commercialization, all Mexican efforts to be able to track the weapons that we are detaining here, find themselves with a limit within the US system.
he added.
And the control systems they have are so backward that the information we request can take months to arrive; That is to say, it is a kind of conspiracy so that that amount of weapons can penetrate Mexico. This is a really very, very serious matter.
he stressed.
This, he added, indicates that the relationship between Mexico and the United States must be very positive, in order to contain this problem of arms trafficking. because it is what generates and multiplies the lethality of what we are having to suffer in our territory
.
Data very serious
During the conference there was a question about the president’s opinion on the ATF report, to which Sheinbaum asked Gertz to state the case.
The attorney general highlighted the relevance of the report because It is confirming everything that Mexico has suffered because of the abundance of this high-level weaponry, which has been one of our fundamental struggles.
.
He highlighted that these are pieces of .50 caliber and higher, which have provided criminal groups with a fire capacity that had never been seen before.
It is an official report and the data are truly very serious for a very simple reason: all the strength of the criminal cartels is in their firepower, it is in their weapons.
Sheinbaum stressed that the report is relevant because it recognizes a problem that Mexico has insisted on since the last six-year term, in addition to the fact that it will serve as support for the Mexican government in negotiations with the next US president, Donald Trump.
Just as they are concerned about the entry of narcotics into the United States from Mexican territory, we are alerted and concerned about the issue of the entry of weapons from that country into Mexico.
he stated.
On another issue, prosecutor Gertz asserted that the FGR maintains the investigation files and arrest warrants against the former Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna, as well as the request to the United States for his extradition, in order to prosecute him for crimes committed in Mexico.
He indicated that these investigations also cover the probable responsibility of the United States for the illegal entry of weapons into Mexico through the operation fast and furiousin the six-year term of Felipe Calderón.
