Mexico's army is finding weapons like belt-fed machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades that are not sold for civilian use in the United States.

Mexico wants an urgent investigation into how U.S. military-grade weapons are increasingly being found in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, Mexico’s top diplomat said Monday.

Mexico’s army is finding belt-fed machine guns, rocket launchers and grenades that are not sold for civilian use in the United States.

“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 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.

  • @[email protected]English
    3•5 months ago

    The United Fruit Company would like to have a word about this.

    From Guatemala:

    The United Fruit Company (UFC), whose highly profitable business had been affected by the softening of exploitative labor practices in Guatemala, engaged in an influential lobbying campaign to persuade the U.S. to overthrow the Guatemalan government

    From Honduras:

    The United Fruit Company, through its investment and influence, took on the role of nation-building in Central America throughout the first half of the twentieth century and is what one would call the epitome of U.S imperialism. The freedom granted to this company throughout Central America is one that is mostly indebted to the authoritarian regimes that assisted in their economic pillaging. Under the nickname of “Banana Republics,” many Central American nations were forced into a subservient relationship with the U.S. through their corporations.

    From Colombia:

    Hence, the UFC utilized its strong ties with the US government and, more specifically, the CIA. On December 6, 1928, the US government threatened to invade Colombia with the US Marine Corps that were stationed off the shores of Ciénaga should the Colombian government not act to protect the UFC’s interests. Concerned with this threat and its potential economic impact, the Colombian government decided to act in favor of the interests of the United Fruit Company.