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The U.S.-Mexico Double Fix: Combating the Flow of Guns to Transnational Organized Crime
The U.S.-Mexico Double Fix
Working together to reduce gun trafficking and irregular migration
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of guns are trafficked over the southwest U.S. border every year. The resulting violence is a catalyst for U.S.-bound irregular migration across Mexico and Central America. In 2022, the Pacific Council and the Conflict Awareness Project (CAP) launched the U.S.-Mexico Security Cooperation Project to help advance recommendations aimed at curtailing these interrelated problems.
In 2022, we met with policymakers in both Mexico and the U.S. to better understand their approaches to these issues, learn about opportunities for cooperation, and identify ways forward. Our team is currently collecting and analyzing data to document the trafficking of U.S. guns to Mexico and further U.S. initiatives that will support Mexico’s goal of reducing these illegal flows. We are also examining what it will take for the U.S. and Mexico to reach the objectives they outlined in their long-term bilateral security plan — the Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safer Communities — released in 2022.
The U.S.-Mexico Double Fix is the platform we’ve created to share insights, publicize our research findings, and promote action by stakeholders to enhance human security on both sides of the border. We believe in the importance of our mission: Disrupting the trafficking of U.S. guns to Mexico will help reduce armed violence. That, in turn, will result in fewer innocent victims being forced to flee their communities and embark on the dangerous journey across the U.S. southwest border. We hope you join us as we undertake this aspirational effort to bring about life-saving reforms.
BLOG POSTS
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The Favorite U.S. Weapons of Mexico’s Drug Cartels
Mexico law enforcement recovers thousands of rifles from violent crime scenes every year. A staggering number of these rifles are high-powered .50-caliber firearms and assault weapons trafficked from the United States. Preferred by Mexico’s drug cartels, these weapons continue to threaten national security and public safety on both sides of the border.
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U.S. GUNS TRAFFICKED TO MEXICO: HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING
Hundreds of thousands of guns are estimated to be trafficked from the U.S. to Mexico every year. One of the largest cross-border movements of illegal firearms in the world, this surge is so great that it has generated its own nickname: the River of Iron.
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INTRODUCING THE U.S.-MEXICO DOUBLE FIX
The Pacific Council has teamed up with the Conflict Awareness Project (CAP) to research the trafficking of U.S. guns to Mexico, part of a broader initiative to promote better collaboration between the two neighboring countries.