Select date
Mexico Demands US Halt Weapons Flow Across Border
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard sat down with White House officials last Tuesday to discuss how a "significant decrease" in US-bound immigration through Mexico has been seen this summer.
Mexico's strategy to slow down immigration flows into the US has been due to a massive presence of at least 25,000 National Guard troops now stationed across the Mexico-US border.
"What Mexico has done is working," Ebrard told the press while acknowledging that border crossings were still up from averages in September.
"But the tendency is irreversible ... It is something that we think will be permanent," he said.
In return for changing the tide of immigration flows into the US, Ebrard told US officials that weapon flows from the US into Mexico need to be as "high of a priority" as immigration.
"Mexico is going to be demanding the measures the United States must take in exchange for the measures Mexico is taking," said Ebrard while meeting with top US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in Washington on Tuesday.
"They have to do a lot more ... very little is being done, if anything," Ebrard said.
Mexico has said 70% of the weapons used to commit violent crimes in the country originate from the US.
Both countries are expected to create a bi-national group to examine the weapons flows at border-crossing points, such as San Diego-Tijuana, El Paso-Ciudad Juarez, Laredo-Nuevo Laredo, McAllen-Reynosa and Brownsville-Matamoros.
"Our ultimate goal is to freeze arms trafficking at the border with the United States," Ebrard said.
Last month we reported how murders in Mexico jumped in 1H19 to the highest on record. From January to June, there were 14,603 murders, versus the 13,985 homicides recorded in 1H18. At the current rate, Mexico is expected to register the most killings ever, surpassing the 29,111 record set last year. Many of the homicides are being conducted with weapons from the US.
And while it seems President Trump is trying to fulfill his 2015-16 campaign pledge to halt the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs from Mexico. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is also trying to do the same, but instead of curbing immigrant flows, he wants to reduce the number of guns that are coming into the country via the US that have produced one of the most violent years ever.
