Armed Violence and Police in Mexico (translation)

Originally published at: http://www.animalpolitico.com/blogueros-seguridad-180/2015/08/03/violencia-armada-y-policia-en-mexico/
 
August 3, 2015

By: Paulina Arriaga Carrasco

Losing life is the most terrible consequence of armed violence. In 5 years (2009-2013) more than 80 thousand people died in Mexico from homicides with firearms. 44 per day. 66% of the homicides in the country were committed with this type of weapon, in Europe this percentage is only 13%, in Africa it is 28%, and the world average is 41%.[i]

The paradox is that Mexico has restrictive legislation in relation to the possession of arms and it is part of all the existing international organisations that monitor the control of them. We might say that, on the formal level, Mexico fulfills the requisites of the diligent and responsible State.

Even with all the legislative and international constraints, arms abound in our country. Academic estimations note that annually 250 thousand firearms enter in an illegal manner from the United States,[ii] other studies indicate that 24 million arms exist in our country.[iii] But where do these weapons come from? It is certain that 70% of those that are checked and verified by the Mexican government come from the US.[iv] Although illegal smuggling from the north is clearly a problem, not all the weapons “reach us from there”.

Institutional weakness, corruption and impunity in the country also make their contribution. Between 2006 and 2014, more than 17 thousand firearms were reported as lost or stolen by the police,[v] more than 150 per month. To put that into perspective, we can compare this figure with the number (officially accepted) of arms involved in the Operation Fast and Furious: in 5 years they dealt -with the consent of the US government- more than 2 thousand firearms.

The figure includes the arms lost or stolen from the state Ministries of Public Security and Attorney General's Offices, as well as the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (PGR), the Federal Police, Centre of Investigation and National Security (CISEN) and the Federal Protection Service. It's worth considering that the level of irresponsibility isn't uniform, just the Federal District, the state of Mexico, Guerrero, Durango and the federal institutions contribute 50% to the total of missing weapons. At the federal level the PGR and the Federal Police take the cake, they have lost 470 weapons each.

If we can't control the legal weapons, for which there exist registers and that came to Mexico under the supervision of Ministry of National Defense (Sedena), how will we be able to combat the illegal trade?

Sedena has the problem well identified. In 2014, the then director of the Federal Register of Firearms and Explosives, General Juan de Dios Bolaños, attacked the police in a public event in the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He commented that, in contrast to them -the army-, the police don't receive punishment for losing arms:

[…] sometimes we also as authorities, we are responsible for selling our own weapons. It is a problem that we have here lately with the police […] I don't know how they make it so easy to say “I lost 20 weapons, I can't find 150 weapons” but they make it very easy.[vi]

The weapons that enter legally to our country for the police aren't exempt from being used in a bad way (in the violation of human rights) or diverted to the black market. The diversion of weapons and the elements for the good management of arsenals are set out in various international organisations of which Mexico is not only a part, but has actively promoted. Lamentably the enthusiastic international participation hasn't seen itself reflected in every day life.

In 2008 Mexico hosted the second conference of States part of the Inter-american Convention against the Illicit Manufacture and Trade of Fire Arms (CIFTA), in 2010 the meeting of the Action Program for the prevention, combat and elimination of illicit trade of small and light arms in all its aspects (POA) and in a few weeks the first meeting of States part of the Treaty on Arms Trade (ATT) will be in Cancún.

The ATT seeks to reduce the suffering caused by armed violence, one of its fundamental aspects is preventing the diversion of legal arms to unauthorised users. Behind the optimism of the existence of this treaty, that without doubt is historic, Mexicans come up against an extremely complex reality to deal with. These diversions, I can assure it, won't be resolved with technical details of improvements in the security of warehouses or gun storehouses. The loss and robbery of weapons is a symptom more of what in this space (Animal Pólitico) has written Maru Suárez de Garay:

[…] the problem doesn't centre only on “diverted” behaviours -the thesis of the rotten apple- but on a series of institutionalised practices that are the results of the form in which the organisational structure of the police has been linked with political power, producing favourable conditions for corruption and the exercise of diverse illegal and extra-institutional forms of police conduct.[vii]

The presence of weapons that fall into the hands of unauthorised people doesn't only depend on corruption and impunity on our borders, but also on the that existing in the police stations, and that is one piece of the puzzle that is dealt with very little. This reality entails admitting internal responsibility and leaving behind the thinking that all the problem comes from abroad. Without doubt this theme is a point of convergence among those who strive to transform the police and those who wish to reduce armed violence in Mexico.

I invite them to follow here the work that [Des]arma México y Casede are carrying out about this and other issues in the National Observatory of Armed and Gender Violence. #OVAG.

* Paulina Arriaga Carrasco is founder and executive director of [Des]arma México. Facebook DesArmaMéxico Twitter @desarmamex Collaborated with Vania Ruiz and Dorena Estrada.




[i] Oficina de las Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito, Estudio mundial sobre el Homicidio 2013, p. 6.
[ii] David A. Shirk, et.al., The Way of the Gun: Estimating Firearms Traffic Across the U.S.-Mexico Border, Estados Unidos, Igarapé Institute y Transborder Institute de la Universidad de San Diego, 2013, p.15.
[iii] Eugenio Weigend, Íñigo Guevara, “How many illegal guns are there in Mexico? Probably more than you think”, El Daily Post, 3 de junio de 2014.
[iv] Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Mexico, Estados Unidos, 2015. Consulta aquí.
[v] Respuesta de Seden a solicitud de información, Folio 000700205114
[vi]  Bolaños, Juan de Dios, Mesa de Discusión Tráfico de Armas en México, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, auditorio Guillermo Floris Margadant,  26 de junio 2014.
[vii] María Eugenia Suárez de Garay, “Del autoempleo en el mundo policial (Segunda Parte)”, Animal Político, 8 de junio de 2015.