Where the Guns Go
U.S. Policy and Human Rights in Mexico
Screening of the film Where the Guns Go, followed by a discussion
ABAD LEYVA
Co-Director, Where the Guns Go
JOHN LINDSAY-POLAND
Stop US Arms to Mexico, American Friends Service Committee
THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 7:00 PM
Los Altos Library, 13 S. San Antonio Rd, Los Altos
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Free and open to all ~ Wheelchair accessible
Policymakers in Washington know that the Mexican state and armed forces are deeply involved in widespread crimes, and also that they have committed serious violations with weapons sold by the U.S. Yet since 2012, Washington has sold billions of dollars worth of weapons and military equipment to those same forces.
U.S. legal arms sales to the Mexican police and military have grown enormously, to $3.5 billion between late 2012 and April 2015—nearly 10 times as much as the three-year period of 2000-2002, despite a climate of increasing fear and concern among Mexicans about state violence and impunity. These concerns have heightened in the wake of the September 2014 forced disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers school in the southern state of Guerrero, bringing global attention to the more than 27,000 people reported as forcibly disappeared in Mexico and 150,000 homicides since 2007, when then-President Felipe Calderón deployed the military to cities.
A large volume of military grade assault weapons are also purchased on the open retail market in the United States and trafficked to Mexico for use by criminal organizations.
Recognizing the role the United States plays in arming Mexican police and military amid a growing human rights crisis experienced by Mexicans and Central American migrants in Mexico, the Quaker organization American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) (afsc.org) organized a fact-finding mission to Mexico. The U.S.-based delegation of 17 peace, social justice, and human rights advocates sought to gauge the impact of U.S. military programs and arms sales to Mexico, and to obtain firsthand accounts of the increased collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico in their effort to curb immigration flows on Mexico’s southern border.
This is their report.
Sponsored by Peninsula Peace and Justice Center & Los Altos Library
