Mexico on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against major US gunmakers in a Boston court over illegal cross-border arms flows that fuel rampant violence, the government have revealed.
Speaking at a news conference, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said; ‘We are going to win the trial and we are going to drastically reduce illicit arms trafficking to Mexico’.
The companies named in the suit include Smith & Wesson, Beretta, Colt, Glock, Century Arms, Ruger, and Barrett.
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Together they manufacture more than two-thirds of the over half a million weapons that are illegally brought into Mexico each year, according to the Mexican authorities.
The flow of arms generates millions of dollars in profits each year for the American gun industry.
The lawsuit seeks compensation for the damage caused by the firms’ “negligent practices” as well as the implementation of adequate standards to “monitor and discipline” arms dealers, Ebrard said.
The Latin American country has seen more than 300,000 murders since 2006 when it deployed the military in the fight on drugs trafficking, most of them blamed on criminal gangs.
Africa Today News, New York understands that more than 17,000 murders in 2019 involved weapons illegally trafficked from the United States, according to the Mexican government.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK