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A senior Mexican diplomat on Monday demanded to know why US military weapons are increasingly being found in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
According to US News, “The Mexican Army finds machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades that are not sold for civilian use in the United States.”
The revelations echo an earlier scandal when it was discovered that the Obama administration was using unofficial procurement to supply civilian weapons to Mexican cartels, known as Operation Fast and Furious.
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Why is this happening?
It's an important question, and it doesn't have a lot of potential answers.
Foreign Relations Minister Alicia Bárcena said that the (Mexican) Ministry of Defense warned the United States against the entry of weapons into Mexico intended for the exclusive use of the US military. “It is extremely urgent that this matter be investigated.”
The story continued:
The Mexican military said in June that it had confiscated 221 fully automatic machine guns, 56 grenade launchers and dozens of rocket launchers from drug cartels since late 2018.
US military-grade weapons — which the cartels have flaunted and publicly displayed on social media — pose a particular challenge to the Mexican military, which, along with the police and National Guard, already faces cartels operating homemade armored vehicles and bomb-dropping drones.
In June, Defense Minister Luis Crescencio Sandoval said that five rocket launchers had been found in the possession of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, four had been seized from the rival Sinaloa Cartel, and three more had been seized from other cartels. Sandoval did not specifically say that the weapons were from US military stockpiles.
Between the Mexican drug cartels and the Taliban, it seems the only ones are no Those allowed to own automatic weapons are the American people. All will be provided for them, by American taxpayers.
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How did American weapons reach the gangs?
He immediately began apologizing to the press: “There are a number of possible routes by which the weapons may have reached Mexico. Central America was full of US weapons during the conflicts of the 1980s, and military weapons sometimes disappear from stockpiles in the United States, and some of the manufacturers selling the weapons may have The US military may have sold some of it abroad or on the black market, US News reported.
This is something that cannot continue. It is not surprising that American weapons shipped abroad for foreign conflicts end up in the hands of wrongdoers.
What's a good argument for not sending too many American weapons to foreign countries?
At the same time, Mexico is right to be concerned about many American weapons reaching the cartels. And so is America.
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