Mexico’s President warned U.S. Gunmakers on Friday that they may face new legal action and could be considered accomplices if Washington designsates Mexican Drug Cartels terrorist groups.
Claudia Sheinbaum, at a press conference held daily, said: “If they declare criminal groups terrorists then we will have to expand our U.S. litigation.”
She said that a new charge could be alleged “complicity of gunmakers” with terrorist groups.
Sheinbaum stated that the U.S. Justice Department has itself acknowledged that “74%” of the weapons used by criminal groups within Mexico are imported from the north.
reported that “60 Minutes”, a television program, had estimated between 200,000 and half a-million U.S. guns are smuggled to Mexico each year.
According to U.S. Intelligence sources, a 2023 CBS Reports investigative report found that cartel gunrunning networks pay Americans to purchase weapons at gun shops and online dealers across the nation, even as far north as Wisconsin or Alaska. A chain of brokers and messengers then transports the firearms across the southwest border.
The New York Times published on Thursday that the U.S. State Department intends to classify criminal organizations from Mexico, Colombia and El Salvador as “terrorist groups.”
The Times reported that the cartels in Mexico targeted are the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Also, they include the Northeast cartel as well as the Michoacan Family, the United cartel and the Northeast cartel.
Mexico has already filed a lawsuit against U.S. weapons manufacturers and vendors in the United States, claiming $10 Billion in damages for the alleged role they played in criminal violence within the country.
Sheinbaum rebuffed an accusation made by the United States, that her government had an alliance with drug cartels.
The president said on social media that “we categorically rejected the slander” made by the White House about the Mexican government’s alliances with criminal groups.
She added that if there was an alliance, it would be in the U.S. Gun Shops which sell high-powered guns to these criminal organizations.
Sheinbaum began a campaign last month to reduce the number of guns on the streets. offered cash for those who anonymously left weapons at designated drop off locations, such as churches.
Ricardo Trevilla, the Mexican Defense Minister, said earlier this week that U.S. military planes could have spied during recent flights near Mexican territories on cartels. When asked if the aircraft had spied upon Mexican drug traffickers the general replied: “We cannot rule it out, because we do not know what they did.”
The tensions between these two countries soared when the White House announced that Trump would impose tariffs on Mexican and Canadian products of 25% because of illegal immigration.
The threatened tariffs were suspended for 30 days.
