Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday formally launched a marketing campaign to crack down on the variety of weapons on the nation’s violence-wracked streets.
The plan, referred to as “Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace,” will provide money to those that anonymously go away weapons at designated drop-off areas, together with church buildings.
Gun house 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 a part of the federal government’s “integral technique” for combating crime.
“Why should we educate our kids something about violence?” Sheinbaum mentioned at a launch occasion, which featured the symbolic destruction of a weapon by troopers.
Daniel Cardenas/Anadolu through Getty Images
Children attending the occasion with their dad and mom had been capable of commerce in toy weapons for different toys.
The scheme, first floated final month, was revealed within the nation’s official authorities gazette earlier this week.
It has existed in Mexico City since 2019, however now will apply nationwide, and be carried out by the protection, inside and public security ministries, with help from Mexican spiritual authorities.
Mexico is affected by violent crime linked to the multibillion-dollar unlawful drug commerce.
In 2023, the nation recorded 31,062 homicides, 70 p.c of which had been attributable to firearms, in accordance with preliminary information from the nationwide statistics institute.
Mexico tightly controls gun gross sales, making them virtually not possible to acquire legally, and has repeatedly urged Washington to deal with arms trafficking throughout the border from the United States.
An estimated 200,000 to half million U.S. firearms are smuggled into Mexico yearly, “60 Minutes” reported final month. Mexico requested American legal professional Jonathan Lowy to assist reduce off the gun pipeline, generally known as the “iron river.”
“If you suppose fentanyl overdoses are an issue, for those who suppose migration throughout the border is an issue, for those who suppose the unfold of organized crime is an issue within the United States, then you must care about stopping the crime gun pipeline to Mexico,” Lowy advised “60 Minutes” in December. “And you should cease it at its supply. Because all these issues are pushed by the provision of U.S. weapons to the cartels.”
