𝗠𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗖𝗢 𝗦𝗨𝗘𝗦 𝗨.𝗦. 𝗚𝗨𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗨𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗚𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝟳𝟰% 𝗢𝗙 𝗠𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗖𝗢'𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗔𝗣𝗢𝗡𝗦, 𝗔𝗥𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗥𝗨𝗚 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗞𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗦𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗠𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗭𝗘𝗡𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗨𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬

                

The editor

From the editor:  While knowing little about the politics of Mexico, I've observed Mexico's new President, Claudia Sheinbaum, very carefully.  

IMHO, Sheinbaum, is a resolute, strong-minded woman, with a deep love for her country and a desire to protect its people, but also with an intellect that matches other world leaders and easily surpasses that of our President, Donald Trump. 

With Trump threatening to slap tariffs on Mexico, even threatening an invasion undermining and disrespecting Mexico's sovereignty, Mexico, under Sheinbaum, has initiated a $10B lawsuit against the gun manufacturers in the United States.

The United States is not operating from the moral high ground here as we're at least 2/3 of the illegal drugs/illegal guns problem.  The U.S. provides the demand for fentanyl(and cocaine, heroine and marijuana before that), but also supplies 74% of the weaponry the cartels use in their drug manufacturing and drug supplying business.

At the root of America's weapons industry is our country's worship of weapons, supercharged by a misreading of the Second Amendment.  In the United States the National Rifle Association is a religion and Americans, like no other country, year after year, tolerate mass shootings with automatic weapons, particularly those mowing down innocent school children. (We pretend to hate mass shootings, but never do anything about it.)

Mexico, reportedly, will be suing America's gun manufacturers for $10B, but I say they should go for more, at least $500B.  As someone who's been a reader of Borderland Beat for several years and routinely seen the bodies scattered on Mexico's streets, killed by guns manufactured in the U.S. and illegally shipped to Mexico, I don't think Mexico should go easy on those criminals who manufacture guns in the U.S. and ship them to Mexico, a country where guns are illegal.

Now, the U.S. gun manufacturer think they're clever, selling their product to "straw men," who resell in Mexico, but they know exactly what they're doing.  The charts on the walls of their boardrooms likely detail the millions of guns they'll be illegally shipping to Mexico.  

Someday, we may have a President and Congress ethical enough, moral enough, to actually do something about our huge gun problem and the havoc our obsession with guns and profits does in other countries like Mexico, but it won't come soon enough for me. 

                             

Mexico's president on Friday warned U.S. gunmakers they could face fresh legal action and be deemed accomplices if Washington designates Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups.

"If they declare these criminal groups as terrorists, then we'll have to expand our U.S. lawsuit," Claudia Sheinbaum said at a daily press conference.

A new charge could include alleged "complicity" of gunmakers with terror groups, she said.

Sheinbaum said the U.S. Justice Department itself has recognized that "74% of the weapons" used by criminal groups in Mexico come from north of the border.

          

An estimated 200,000 to half a million U.S. firearms are smuggled into Mexico every year, "60 Minutes" reported in December.

A 2023 CBS Reports investigation found that dozens of cartel gunrunning networks, operating like terrorist cells, pay Americans to buy weapons from gun stores and online dealers all across the country, as far north as Wisconsin and even Alaska, according to U.S. intelligence sources. The firearms are then shipped across the southwest border through a chain of brokers and couriers.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that the U.S. State Department plans to classify criminal groups from Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador and Venezuela as "terrorist organizations."

The cartels targeted in Mexico are the Sinaloa cartel, the Jalisco New Generation cartel, the Northeast cartel, the Michoacan family and the United cartel, the Times reported.

Mexico has already filed a lawsuit in the United States against U.S. arms manufacturers and vendors, claiming $10 billion in damages for their alleged role in criminal violence in the country.

                              

Earlier this month, Sheinbaum angrily rejected an accusation by the United States that her government has an alliance with drug cartels.

"We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Mexican government about alliances with criminal organizations," the president wrote on social media at the time.

"If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the U.S. gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups," she added.

Last month, Sheinbaum launched a campaign to crack down on the number of weapons on the country's streets by offering cash to those who anonymously leave weapons at designated drop-off locations, including churches.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla said U.S. military aircraft may have spied on cartels during recent flights near Mexican territory. Asked whether the aircraft had spied on Mexican drug traffickers, the general said: "We can't rule it out because we don't know what they did."

Tensions between the closely connected neighbors soared after the White House said Trump would slap tariffs of 25% on both Mexican and Canadian goods because of illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

The threatened tariffs have since been halted for 30 days.