Opinion
On Monday, a top Mexican diplomat demanded to know why U.S. Army weapons are increasingly being found in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
According to US News, “Mexico’s army is finding belt-fed machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades that are not sold for civilian use in the United States.”
These revelations echo an earlier scandal when it was discovered the Obama administration was using straw purchases to provide Mexican cartels with civilian-grade weapons, known as Operation Fast and Furious.
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Why is This Happening?
It’s an important question, and one without too many possible answers.
US News continued, “The (Mexican) Defense Department has warned the United States about weapons entering Mexico that are for the exclusive use of the U.S. army,’ Foreign Relations Secretary Alicia Bárcena said. ‘It is very urgent that an investigation into this be carried out.”
The story continued:
The Mexican army said in June that it had seized 221 fully automatic machine guns, 56 grenade launchers and a dozen rocket launchers from drug cartels since late 2018.
The military-grade U.S. weaponry — which cartels have bragged about and openly displayed on social media — poses a special challenge for Mexico’s army, which along with police and the National Guard already faces cartels operating homemade armored vehicles and bomb-dropping drones.
In June, Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said five rocket launchers had been found in the possession of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, four were seized from the rival Sinaloa cartel and three more seized from other cartels. Sandoval did not specifically say the weapons were from U.S. military stockpiles.
Between Mexican drug cartels and the Taliban, it appears the only people who are not allowed to have automatic weapons are the American people. Everyone else will have them provided, by American taxpayers.
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How Did US Weapons Wind Up with the Cartels?
The apologia began immediately from the press: “There are a number of possible routes by which the weapons may have made their way to Mexico. Central America was awash with U.S. weaponry during the conflicts of the 1980s, military grade weapons sometimes go missing from stocks in the United States, and some manufacturers who sell arms to the U.S. military might also have sold some abroad or on the black market,” US News noted.
This is something that cannot continue. It’s not unheard of that American weapons shipped abroad for foreign conflicts end up in the hands of wrongdoers.
Which is a good argument for maybe not sending so many US weapons to foreign countries?
In the meantime, Mexico is right to be concerned about so many American weapons ending up with the cartels. And so is America.
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