Legal U.S. firearm sales to Latin American countries are on the rise, arming violent actors in Mexico, Guatemala, and elsewhere. U.S. gun export policies need more than tweaking.
Guns exported from the U.S. to Mexico end up in the hands of state security forces who commit human rights atrocities. Existing mechanisms for monitoring and controlling the trade are ineffective.
How early research on the shadowy machinations of U.S. security aid and arms sales shaped NACLA’s solidarity with Latin America—a web-only feature for our 50th anniversary issue.
Mexico has purchased at least $1.15 billion in military equipment from the United States over the past year.
Mexico has purchased at least $1.15 billion in military equipment from the United States over the past year.
For the last two decades, the dominant narrative justifying the U.S. military’s activities in Latin America has been the war on drugs and the fight against “narco-terrorists.” In the last ten years, however, the U.S. military has undertaken several unrelated activities including low-profile tests of military equipment; humanitarian assistance that the military itself acknowledges has intelligence-gathering purposes; and training to suppress social protest. This article was originally published in the May/June 2011 issue of the NACLA Report on the Americas.