Versión Español
Spanish – Following the shooting in El Paso, Texas, where at least seven Mexicans were killed, and several were seriously wounded, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) urged the United States to investigate the “indiscriminate sale of arms.” Meanwhile, he ignores how, under his government, Mexico is living through its most violent year ever, despite the restriction on arms.
Compared to the first half of 2018, murders in the first half of this year increased from 15,973 to 17,138, according to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP). Thus, the number of homicides has increased, showing the ineffectiveness of the safety policies implemented by Lopez Obrador.
According to GunPolicy.org, a website backed by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Mexico has restrictive policies for arms possession by civilians.
Despite these restrictions, Acapulco, the second most violent city in the world, is in Mexico. The first one is Caracas, Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez ordered the confiscation of arms from civilians. The weapons went from the hands of their civilian owners to paramilitary collectives loyal to socialism.
In other words, arms restriction has not only proved to be inefficient, but it has also left ordinary people defenseless, both against criminals and against state injustice, as is the case in Venezuela.
The U.S. guarantees the right of civilians to carry weapons if the state oversteps its functions
As Plato said, “good people don’t need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way to avoid the laws.” When it is illegal for citizens to bear arms, they are defenseless against a dictatorship that only allows those who are willing to protect the socialist ideals promoted by Chavismo to carry weapons.
The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution exists precisely to avoid this tyranny. It guarantees both the right to carry arms and the creation of a militia to confront the government if it oversteps its authority.
However, leftists in the U.S. as well as internationally want to take away the citizens’ right to defend themselves and grant the government monopoly over arms. Lopez Obrador is one of the opponents of the second amendment.
“Weapons for what?” Fidel Castro asked in his 1959 inaugural speech and taught his followers that an unarmed population is a population at the mercy of the government. Chavez, Maduro, and Lopez Obrador, who now wants the same for the U.S., followed this example.
Mexico is living through its most violent year
One look at the other side of the border shows the failure of the arms restriction. Mexico witnessed the assassination of one mayor each week on average. AMLO inherited this trend but has not managed to reverse it. In fact, it is on the rise.
Just on one day, Saturday 8th June, 113 deaths were reported and another 191 on Sunday. In the first half of June alone, 650 murders were recorded between 6th and 12th June according to a security report.
The actual figure could exceed 800 fatalities in that period since the same report indicates that “official statistics are only reported by the National Information Center of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP). In February of this year, for example, while the government reported 632 malicious homicides, SESNSP counted 790: a difference of 158 murders.
So while Lopez Obrador promised “hugs, not bullets” in his presidential campaign, Mexicans have experienced more violence than ever during his term in office.
More Americans are killed in Mexico than in all countries combined
According to Forbes, it is precisely in Mexico, where more U.S. citizens are murdered than in the rest of the countries combined.
They consider figures from the National Office of Travel and Tourism, and data from the State Department, which reveal the homicide of 75 Americans in Mexico versus 69 in the rest of the world.
The danger is so severe that the State Department warned its officials not to drive from the U.S. border to “the interior parts of Mexico, except for day trips on Highway 15 between Nogales and Hermosillo.”
“While most of these murders appeared to be targeted, murders of criminal organizations, territorial battles between criminal groups have resulted in violent crimes in areas frequented by U.S. citizens,” the agency says. “Incidents of gunfire have occurred that injure or kill bystanders.”
Lopez Obrador threatens legal action
Although the president of Mexico clarified that he does not intend to interfere in the internal affairs of the United States, since the fatal victims include Mexicans, he instructed Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard to “proceed legally against the person who committed this crime.” The foreign minister announced that he would take legal action against the person who sold the weapon to the murderer.
En mensaje a medios en Estados Unidos señalé que en síntesis:
1. Nuestro Consulado General en El Paso y nuestra área de protección a mexicanos seguirán apoyando a las familias y víctimas. Asistirán al servicio funerario que organizará el alcalde de la ciudad.— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) August 5, 2019
“In the course of the next few hours (…), if the prosecutor (Alejandro Gertz) so decides, he will initiate the complaint of terrorism against Mexican nationals in the territory of the United States,” he added. “As far as I know, it would be the first lawsuit of this nature in history.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, Mexico suffers a wave of violence carried out with restricted firearms and Lopez Obrador has not only failed to combat it but has even denied the rate of murders experienced by his fellow citizens.
The laws that he asks the neighboring country to implement have not worked in his native country. Despite restricting weapons, his administration has failed to combat the increase in armed violence.
