Latam gun violence blamed on US laws

MCT Information Services/Los Angeles

Lax US gun regulations are enabling the international trafficking of high-powered weapons and fuelling the spread of gun violence in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Council on Foreign Relations argues in a report urging President Barack Obama to take action on initiatives that have foundered in Congress.

More than 70% of the 99,000 weapons recovered by Mexican law enforcement since 2007 were traced to US manufacturers and importers, the council report said, citing data from the eTrace programme of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The figure for guns of US origin recovered in the Caribbean is over 90%, the study noted.

“The flow of high-powered weaponry from the US to Latin America and the Caribbean exacerbates soaring rates of gun-related violence in the region and undermines US influence in the western hemisphere,” states the council’s policy memo, written by Latin America studies director Julia Sweig.

The ATF statistics, as well as those of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, suggest the escalating flow of assault weapons from the US is connected with a 30% higher rate of per capita gun-related homicides in Latin America than the global average. In Mexico, the UN homicide report for 2011 charts a more than tripling of firearms slayings in less than a decade.

Mexico’s consul general for Los Angeles, Carlos M Sada, contends that the share of US weapons recovered in his country from scenes of gun violence are even higher than the eTrace statistics have measured. He puts the guns of US origin at more than 80% and says the issue is one of deep concern for his country as it battles to contain raging violence among the drug cartels.