Today ENAAT, Ohne Rüstung Leben and Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo publish a briefing note on ‘How European weapons fuel armed violence in Mexico’, as part of the online event at 5m.
From 18 to 25 February 2023, the European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT) and two of its national members, Ohne Rüstung Leben and Rete Pace & Disarmo, took part in an international Delegation to Mexico, organised by Stop US Arms to Mexico with support of the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH).
The mission confirmed that European small arms and light weapons (SALWs, mainly guns & rifles, (heavy) machine guns and ammunition) continue fuelling armed violence in Mexico and contribute to serious human rights violations impacting all of the Mexican people.
Gun violence in Mexico is estimated to have driven at least 379,000 people from their homes, killed more than 217,000 people since 2010, and forcibly disappeared over 111,000 people. Between 2012 and 2021, more than two of every three homicides in Mexico were committed with firearms, and nearly all of the weapons used in these crimes were produced in the United States and Europe. In 2021 only, 42 massive displacement episodes were registered in Mexico; in over 90% of the cases, firearms were involved. Mexico remains one of the world’s most dangerous and deadly countries for journalists. Nearly 150 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000 and 28 have gone missing. In the state of Guerrero, where violence is dire and deteriorating, 36 reporters have been forcibly displaced, three disappeared and 20 killed in the last 20 years.
Read the full Briefing note here
The recorded event is now on our YouTube channel here: “18/07 – How European weapons fuel armed violence in Mexico”
See also the Stop US Arms To Mexico videos for further information and testimonies on armed violence in Mexico and the International Delegation of February 2023
