Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday officially launched a campaign to crack down on the number of weapons on the country's violence-wracked streets.
The plan, called "Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace," will offer cash to those who anonymously leave weapons at designated drop-off locations, including churches.
Gun owners will get 8,700 pesos ($430) for a revolver, 25,000 pesos ($1,200) for an AK-47 rifle and 26,450 pesos ($1,300) for a machine gun. The firearms are then to be destroyed.
The disarmament plan is part of the government's "integral strategy" for fighting crime.
"Why must we teach our children anything about violence?" Sheinbaum said at a launch event, which featured the symbolic destruction of a weapon by soldiers.
Children attending the event with their parents were able to trade in toy guns for other toys.
The scheme, first floated last month, was published in the country's official government gazette earlier this week.
It has existed in Mexico City since 2019, but now will apply nationwide, and be carried out by the defense, interior and public safety ministries, with support from Mexican religious authorities.
Mexico tightly controls gun sales, making them practically impossible to obtain legally, and has repeatedly urged Washington to tackle arms trafficking across the border from the United States.
An estimated 200,000 to half million U.S. firearms are smuggled into Mexico every year, "60 Minutes" reported last month. Mexico asked American attorney Jonathan Lowy, founder of Global Action on Gun Violence, to help cut off the gun pipeline, known as the "iron river."
"If you think fentanyl overdoses are a problem, if you think migration across the border is a problem, if you think the spread of organized crime is a problem in the United States, then you should care about stopping the crime gun pipeline to Mexico," Lowy told "60 Minutes" in December. "And you need to stop it at its source. Because all those problems are driven by the supply of U.S. guns to the cartels."
Source: CBS News
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Why are city commissioners and mayor going on a trip to Washington for Trump inauguration? Why are tax-payers footing this bill? The brain child of Helen Ramirez… she proposed the trip and commissioners signed up for the vacation at tax-payer expense. What the hell are they going to the inauguration for?! Do they think they are going to get face time with Trump? What a waste of money… these bozos should concentrate on paving our streets! And we pay them now to boot. Why are you not reporting this?
ReplyDeleteThe Brownsville City Commission has a long, long history of freely spending taxpayer monies on expensive trips, racking up huge hotel, dining and transportation bills that do absolutely nothing for Brownsville. Over the years, I've chronicled those expenditures, although few give a shit. Hell, Mayor Tony Martinez, Rose Gowen, etc. took multiple trips to Colombia at the taxpayers expense. What did those trips accomplish for Brownsville? These expensive trips are considered a rite of passage for the folks we elect to city government.
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