Mexico City, Mexico – As the United States prepares to designate Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorists Organizations (FTO), Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum announced last Friday the potential for legal escalation against U.S. gun manufacturers.
The country first filed a lawsuit against gun makers in 2021, claiming that their commercial practices are flooding Mexico with weapons used by cartels.
During her daily press conference, the Mexican President fired back at reports by the New York Times which claimed the U.S. State Department will officially label five drug cartels as FTOs while the Federal Government mobilizes to take on Mexican organized crime.
According to the Times report; the Sinaloa Cartel, the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, Familia Michoacana, United Cartels and the Northeast Cartel would be label as FTOs by the U.S. government, which could entail a more direct and hostile approach of the U.S. government against the largest cartels in Mexico.
For the Mexican leader, the designation of criminal groups that operate from Mexico would push her government to expand the ongoing lawsuit against U.S. gun makers, as cartels largely obtain their armament from their neighbor to the north.
The 2021 lawsuit named some of the U.S.’ largest arms manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson Brands Inc.; Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc.; Beretta USA Corp. The suit accused them of fostering gun violence in Mexico, a country with very stringent gun legislation.
“If they were to decree organized crime groups as terrorists, we would have to expand the lawsuit in the United States because then, as the Department of Justice itself has already acknowledged that 74% of the arms of criminal groups come from the United States, then how are the arms manufacturers and distributors affected by the decree? The lawyers are looking at it, but they could be accomplices,” she said.
On January 20, President Donald Trump issued a decree that sought to label international criminal groups from Mexico, Venezuela and El Salvador as FTOs.
Beyond the role of cartels in drug trafficking and the smuggling of deadly synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, the decree asserts that cartels in Mexico operate as “quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society,” turning them into a matter of U.S. national security.
The move has drawn concerns and criticism from the Mexican leadership as Trump’s decree vows a more hostile and even interventionist attitude towards the Mexican underworld.
“The message is clear that Americans see Mexico as a security problem,” Homeland Security expert and analyst David Saucedo told Aztec Reports.
“The emphasis of Trump’s relationship with Mexico will be on containing and combating organized crime and drug cartels. That’s pretty clear,” he said.
In the last month the U.S. has mobilized resources and manpower in its renewed strategy against cartels.
For the past two weeks, U.S. intelligence flights have been reportedt in Mexico’s northwest, a bastion for some of the most powerful drug cartels and human smuggling operations.
While Sheinbaum said she wasn’t concerned about the “espionage” flights, her government urged Washington for an explanation.
“Mexico does have issues to discuss with the Americans, where their interest is contrary to Washington’s directives. I wish there could be a negotiation as such,” said Saucedo. “And a negotiation necessarily implies exchange, moderating positions and obtaining things in exchange. So far the government of Mexico and Mexico as a whole, is the one paying for trying to provide security to the Americans.”
Featured image credit: via Claudia Sheinbaum’s official webpage
