How they see us: Exporting death to Mexico
The Mexican president demanded that the U.S. create a gun registry for assault weapons.
President Felipe Calderón has put the U.S. on notice, said Mayolo López in El Norte. At a recent meeting in Washington with President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Calderón demanded that the U.S. create a gun registry for assault weapons, if not ban them again altogether. He said that if American guns continued to flow uncounted into Mexico, the bloodbath engulfing our country would eventually spill over into the U.S. “The very future of American society will be threatened,” he warned. Calderón also risked offending his host by pointing out that thanks to the free trafficking in guns, Washington, D.C., has a murder rate more than twice as high as that of Mexico City. Encouragingly, Obama seemed receptive to our president’s message. “When you have innocent families and women and children who are being gunned down on the streets, that should be everybody’s problem,” Obama said.
That’s a lovely little speech, said Miguel Ángel Rivera in La Jornada. But don’t expect Obama to actually do anything, particularly in an election year. The U.S. president can’t risk alienating “the war industry” by cracking down even on illegal gun sales, so there’s no chance that he will try to stiffen regulations on legal sales. To even hint at doing so would be to torpedo his chances of re-election. The National Rifle Association is simply too powerful to be confronted. Remember, its lobbyists managed to kill a bill in the U.S. House last year that would have banned arms trafficking to Mexico.
It’s time to redefine the NRA as not a lobbying group but a cartel, said Andrés Oppenheimer in La Reforma. Mexico has the Sinaloa cartel and the Zetas cartel, which engage in drug trafficking; the U.S. has the NRA, whose members dominate weapons trafficking. In much the same way that the drug gangs have managed to get Mexican local and state officials on their payrolls, so too has the NRA infiltrated the U.S. government, counting senators and congressmen on its payroll. That’s how it managed to get the ban on military-style assault rifles lifted in 2004. Not coincidentally, gun crime in Mexico began to soar the very next year. The NRA cartel bears “an enormous responsibility for the violence that is taking place in Mexico.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The U.S. doesn’t just have cartels like ours, said El Universal in an editorial. It also has police corruption like ours. In the past five years, nearly 80 U.S. Border Patrol agents and customs officers have been arrested along the Mexican border for assisting in drug and gun smuggling. Hundreds more are under investigation. Last month, three U.S. soldiers were arrested on charges of acting as paid assassins for a Mexican drug gang. U.S. officials have finally conceded that America’s “high drug consumption and indiscriminate sale of assault weapons” have fed the growth of criminal gangs south of the Rio Grande. But do they realize that these criminals are operating north of the river, too? “Organized crime today is transnational, and will only be eliminated if attacked with equal force in all countries in which it resides.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Scientists want to fight malaria by poisoning mosquitoes with human blood
Under the radar Drugging the bugs
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: March 31, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sudoku medium: March 31, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?
In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
By The Week Staff Published
-
'Seriously, not literally': how should the world take Donald Trump?
Today's big question White House rhetoric and reality look likely to become increasingly blurred
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Will Trump's 'madman' strategy pay off?
Today's Big Question Incoming US president likes to seem unpredictable but, this time round, world leaders could be wise to his playbook
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Democrats vs. Republicans: who are the billionaires backing?
The Explainer Younger tech titans join 'boys' club throwing money and support' behind President Trump, while older plutocrats quietly rebuke new administration
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
US election: where things stand with one week to go
The Explainer Harris' lead in the polls has been narrowing in Trump's favour, but her campaign remains 'cautiously optimistic'
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Is Trump okay?
Today's Big Question Former president's mental fitness and alleged cognitive decline firmly back in the spotlight after 'bizarre' town hall event
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The life and times of Kamala Harris
The Explainer The vice-president is narrowly leading the race to become the next US president. How did she get to where she is now?
By The Week UK Published
-
Will 'weirdly civil' VP debate move dial in US election?
Today's Big Question 'Diametrically opposed' candidates showed 'a lot of commonality' on some issues, but offered competing visions for America's future and democracy
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published