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- Deeply moved by the enormous suffering caused by gun violence in Mexico, the delegation expresses solidarity with the families of victims, survivors of violence caused directly and indirectly by firearms, and with their social movements.
- The delegation urges the governments of the United States, Mexico and Europe not to turn their backs on the victims and take all needed actions to reduce gun violence in Mexico and repair the damages done by it.
- The delegation also makes an urgent call to establish effective controls on the flow of firearms to Mexico, given their impact on the growth of armed violence.
Contact:
John Lindsay-Poland, +1 510 282 8983, Stop US Arms to Mexico.
Eva Avilés, comunicacion1@cmdpdh.org, CMDPDH.
Mexico City, February 25, 2023. From February 19 to 25, an International Delegation visited Mexico to investigate the flow of firearms with the aim of strengthening the visibility, understanding and strategies to reduce and control the flow of firearms to Mexico from other countries, especially the United States, and demonstrate the interest and opposition of international civil society to the uncontrolled flow of firearms.
The delegation undertook dialogues with survivors and family members of victims of gun violence in Guerrero and other parts of Mexico, human rights defenders, journalists, high-level officials from the Mexican government’s executive branch, Mexican seantors, and the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The delegation also held public conversations to help identify joint international policies and campaigns to reduce and restrict the export and traffic of weapons to Mexico. The visit occurs in the context of enormous violence: between 2012 and 2021, more than two of every three homicides in Mexico were committed with firearms.[1] Nearly all of the weapons used in these crimes were produced in the United States and Europe. In addition, the delegation learned that organized crime obtains weapons primarily from the United States. Mexico – U.S. cooperation, in addition to cooperation with the international community, should prioritize the prevention and control of weapons flows that cause so much human damage in Mexico, and identify and support best practices.
We wish to recognize the disposition of Mexican officials to meet with the delegation on this serious problem affecting Mexico, and also express our thanks to representatives of gun-source countries who met with us, including the U.S. State Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The delegation is moved by the stories of horror that direct and indirect survivors of gun violence shared, and express our solidarity with them. We share their indignation and declare our profound admiration for their tireless struggle. The delegation urges the governments of the United States, Mexico and Europe not to turn their backs on the victims and take immediate and long-term actions to ensure their protection and the repair of harms to them.
The international delegation thanks the survivors and family members of victims of armed violence in Mexico for their courage and testimonies, as well as the interest and support shown by Mexican civil society organizations for the construction of the a joint agenda on firearms.
In addition, the groups represented in the delegation offers its concrete support to relevant agencies needed to reduce the damages to civilians and achieve the effective control of gun trafficking.
The International Delegation is: Po Murray, president of the Newtown Action Alliance; Jonathan Lowy, Global Action on Gun Violence, who represents Mexico in its lawsuit against gun producers; Jorden Giger, co-founder of Black Lives Matter-South Bend; Manuel Oliver, director of Change the Ref and father of a student killed in Parkland; Laëtitia Sédou, director of the European Network Against the Arms Trade; Wolf Dieter Vogel, German journalist focused on firearms and human rights; Charlotte Kehne, expert on arms export control of weapons from Germany; Jonathan Hempel, co-founder Datbase on Israeli Military and Security Exports; Austrian documentarian Fernando Romero-Forsthuber; and John Lindsay-Poland, coordinator of the Stop US Arms to Mexico Project of Global Exchange.
The delegation is sponsored by Stop US Arms to Mexico, a project of Global Exchange, and in Mexico by the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco, Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, Center for Ecumenical Studies, and Global Thought Mx.
[1] CMDPDH. La Guerra interiorizada: de los crímenes internacionales a la vida pública de México (2006-2021). January 2023, p. 4. Available at: https://cmdpdh.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Informe-Guerra-Interiorizada.pdf
