U.S. data supports claim by Juarez mayor that American guns are fueling violence in Mexico
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Data collected by U.S. outlets seems to support a claim made earlier this week by the mayor of Juarez that American guns are responsible for many of the killings taking place in Mexico.
In fact, according to the U.S. government's own records, the bulk of the American guns ending up in the hands of Mexican criminals are coming directly from Texas.
"The majority of the firearms that are used in Mexico, not just in Juarez, to assassinate people have their origin in North America," Juarez Mayor Héctor Armando Cabada AlvÃdrez told ABC-7 on Wednesday following the second bi-national City Council meeting between El Paso and Juarez.
He went on to claim that "around 70-percent of the firearms used by (Mexican) criminal groups have their origin in the United States."
That figure he cited matches what the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recently told the L.A. Times.
The ATF indicated that of the 132,823 guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico from 2009 to 2018, it found fully 70% of those weapons originated in the U.S. The agency also said it traced those guns primarily to Southwest border states, the most common of which was Texas.
Just within recent weeks, ABC-7 reported on the arrest of an American at the Santa Teresa border crossing for allegedly trying to smuggle a significant number of weapons into Mexico. Mexican authorities on Oct. 6 said they found a cache of firearms and cash hidden inside the man's pickup.
While exactly how many guns are smuggled from the U.S. to Mexico is unknown, one of the few studies to examine that question sheds some light on the answer.
Researchers at the University of San Diego found more than 750,000 guns were purchased in the U.S. between 2010 and 2012 with the intent to be smuggled into Mexico.
Mayor Cabada told ABC-7 that high-level talks were currently taking place between Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and U.S. officials aimed at reducing the flow of illegal firearms from America into Mexico.
