Mexico demands investigation into U.S. military-grade weapons being used by drug cartels

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 314 points – Mexico demands investigation into U.S. military-grade weapons being used by drug cartels
pbs.org

Mexico wants an urgent investigation into how U.S. military-grade weapons are increasingly being found in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, Mexico’s top diplomat said Monday.

Mexico’s army is finding belt-fed machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades that are not sold for civilian use in the United States.

“The (Mexican) Defense Department has warned the United States about weapons entering Mexico that are for the exclusive use of the U.S. army,” Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena said. “It is very urgent that an investigation into this be carried out.”

The Mexican army said in June that it had seized 221 fully automatic machine guns, 56 grenade launchers and a dozen rocket launchers from drug cartels since late 2018.

The military-grade U.S. weaponry — which cartels have bragged about and openly displayed on social media — poses a special challenge for Mexico’s army, which along with police and the National Guard already faces cartels operating homemade armored vehicles and bomb-dropping drones.

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They’re for sale to anyone that will destabilize their government. That’s how it works.

Can't have South America having agency or resources, amirite?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change_in_Latin_America

Elon Musk on Bolivia: "We'll coup who we want."

Elon Musk has zero say in who we coup.

And also Mexico I'm pretty sure is part of north America.

Elon has the money to coup nations on his own, he doesn’t really need the cooperation of any government in funding and weaponizing dissidents

The United Fruit Company would like to have a word about this.

From Guatemala:

The United Fruit Company (UFC), whose highly profitable business had been affected by the softening of exploitative labor practices in Guatemala, engaged in an influential lobbying campaign to persuade the U.S. to overthrow the Guatemalan government

From Honduras:

The United Fruit Company, through its investment and influence, took on the role of nation-building in Central America throughout the first half of the twentieth century and is what one would call the epitome of U.S imperialism. The freedom granted to this company throughout Central America is one that is mostly indebted to the authoritarian regimes that assisted in their economic pillaging. Under the nickname of “Banana Republics,” many Central American nations were forced into a subservient relationship with the U.S. through their corporations.

From Colombia:

Hence, the UFC utilized its strong ties with the US government and, more specifically, the CIA. On December 6, 1928, the US government threatened to invade Colombia with the US Marine Corps that were stationed off the shores of Ciénaga should the Colombian government not act to protect the UFC’s interests. Concerned with this threat and its potential economic impact, the Colombian government decided to act in favor of the interests of the United Fruit Company.

Has the CIA been giving the cartels more military equipment and weaponry again? Honestly, Mexico should build a wall, against the US government.

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Maybe we sold them to the cartels.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal

Just reading that and it doesn’t exactly sound like how you’re implying it is.

They put trackers in the guns to in theory be able to follow the flow of them and see how they were getting to Mexico.

Technically it’s selling them (indirectly) but realistically it’s goal was to stop the sale long term.

During Operation Fast and Furious, the largest gunwalking probe, the ATF monitored the sale of about 2,000 firearms, of which only 710 were recovered as of February 2012. A number of straw purchasers have been arrested and indicted; however, as of October 2011, none of the targeted high-level cartel figures had been arrested.

Critically, the GPS battery life was only a few days and the GPS weapon "tracker" signal was routinely lost especially in car trunks.[8] This lack of technical sophistication and failure of GPS as a tracker, were the major reasons for Fast and Furious failure as an ATF operation.

Call it what you want and imply what you want, it was a critical failure by all account that ultimately armed the cartels further.

That’s it? A whopping 2,000 guns from the country that has close to 400 million guns floating around?

There are more fucking guns than people and you’re acting like 2,000 guns being deliberately put out there is a big deal?

A failure yes, but really not a big deal compared to what results it could have led to if the GPS trackers worked a bit better.

We gave the cartel 2000 guns they didn’t have before and got no meaningful arrests. It’s a failure full stop and I wonder why you’re trying to defend it. I’m pissed my tax dollars paid for this nonsense.

I'm with you. It's absolutely crazy to me how many people blow this off as a non-issue.

It shouldn't even be a partisan thing. What kind of mindset must one have to say giving 2000 guns to cartels for absolutely no benefit isn't a failure?

I agree it’s a failure, but as far as American failures go this is the most insignificant thing ever.

And let’s be honest, this operation was 0.0000000000000000000000000001% of your taxes. You’ve got far bigger issues to be pissed about.

I wonder why you’re trying to make this a big deal?

Such tired nonsense. Republicans made this a scandal. It's a perfectly valid law enforcement strategy and was otherwise effective. Next you'll be linking stories about Benghazi.

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Somebody get Stanley Stupid on the case. I mean, you'll have just about as much luck with him as you would our congress actually getting anything done.

We all know why this is happening. The wheels are flying off this fucking turkey. Corruption isn't just rampant, its the norm. Anyone who doesn't see that is blind or doesn't want to see it.

Mexico can demand all they want. The State Department will do fuckall about it. Hell, the CIA will probably send more.

10 Lemmy bucks says Ft. Hood Ft. Cavazos is involved.

With all the drug money the cartels get from selling drugs to Americans they will get guns from somewhere, it's just a matter of where.

Either the US is selling them to the cartels or the corrupted Mexican gouvernement. I bet it is both.

My money is on the Texas local, city & state police offloading their old US military hardware for a good markup while obtaining more from the Gov.

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it had seized 221 fully automatic machine guns, 56 grenade launchers and a dozen rocket launchers from drug cartels since late 2018

That's all they got in 7-years?! That's a pretty puny armory.

Cartel probably stole them from a military base or in transit.

Yeah sure, it can't be bought so that must be it. Steal from a military base is the most reasonable answer.

It's not an unreasonable answer. There's quite a few places they could steal/buy/acquire them from. And stealing them from one of the largest Army bases in the US, that's also in a border state, isn't beyond reasonable at all.

It's definitely not unreasonable. It's also happened before on several occasions. These peope think members of the military are immune from cartel extortion and threats?

I will not be surprised if Ft. Cavazos is involved in some way.