En Español

Excelsior (Mexico); Opinion
1 July 2003
By Luis Gutiérrez Esparza*

Camila Magalhães Lina, Brazilian, is 16 years old. In 1998, she lost the use of her legs, when she hit by a stray bullet from a shootout between some thieves and some private security guards, while she was walking home from school. Others will not be so lucky. In the 60 seconds that you have taken to read this information about Camila, a person will have
died as a result of gun-related violence.

We know this to be the case in Mexico. It was the case of the girl who died in a Mexico City school, the victim of a fellow high-school student who was carrying a gun to show off his masculinity. The names and the victims keep adding up. Minute by minute. And those who don’t die, generally are left severely injured. For their entire life. In 2020, the
death toll and the number of those injured as a result of war and violence will be higher than the number of those who perish due to diseases such as malaria and measles. Most of this violence involves light weapons.

Therefore, the Global Week of Action Against Small Arms will take place from July 1 through 9, as an initiative initially sponsored by the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) The fundamental activity this year is the Arms Control Campaign, which is aimed at promoting the global adoption of a treaty regulating the arms trade. In addition to IANSA affiliates, among which the Latin American Circle on International Studies (CLAEI) is a leading participant in Mexico, in several countries prestigious non-governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International and Oxfam, will join in the effort.

The Week of Action seeks to create consciousness in civil society and the communications media on the devastating impact of light weapons on the daily lives of masses of people and the actions that are being carried out worldwide to eradicate this daily threat and tragedy, whose origins are plain to see. Throughout the world, there are about 639
million light weapons and every year eight million more are manufactured. Without strict control, these arms will be the fuel and the tools in violent conflicts -local, regional, national and international- state repression, crime, and domestic violence. Unless the governments act to stop the out of control proliferation of such weapons, more lives will be lost, more human rights violations will occur, and more people will be denied the opportunity to lead a decent life.

A broad investigation undertaken by the Institute of International Studies based in Geneva, Switzerland, as part of a United Nations program against arms trafficking, showed that last year, worldwide, 200,000 deaths occurred due to firearms (not including wars). About half of this figure corresponded to Latin America and the Caribbean.

In terms of the number of homicides committed with the use of firearms in one year, in a proportional relation to the country’s population, the worst affected nation in the world is Colombia, with 21,898 deaths, followed by South Africa, with 13,572 such fatalities. In demographic terms, the second most affected country in Latin America is Venezuela,
with 5,408 homicides. Mexico registered 5, 452 deaths, while for Brazil the corresponding figure is 25,603, but its population is approximately 4.4 times greater than that of Colombia. The case of Brazil, however, reflects the importance of armed violence in that nation. With about 77% more inhabitants that Mexico, deaths caused by light weapons in Brazil
are 500% higher than in Mexico. Between the figure of 10,310 homicides registered in the United States as a result of small arms, and the mere 104 deaths that occurred in Uruguay, are Argentina (942), Ecuador (1,321) and Jamaica (450). However, the worldwide balance sheet could not be more distressing or shocking: every minute, a person dies as a result of small arms, independently of who their owner is. And although it is true that the major weapons arsenals, mainly nuclear arms, represent the main threat for the survival of mankind, the danger of less potent arms, is nonetheless real

From the standpoint of the Global Week of Action against Small Arms, the major civic mobilization that took place last Sunday in Mexico City is extremely important. Independently of the presence of extreme right-wing groups, such as those tied to El Yunque or even more sinister organizations, such as the Tecos of the Autonomous University of
Guadalajara (UAG), and lesser known lights of native clerical-fascist currents such as the National Parents Unions (UNPF), it is important not to lose sight of the urgent need to take on the uncontrolled spiral of violence. The mobilization’s aims are unequivocal, even in the different participants in the process are unaware of it.

There are professional politicians and power brokers who want to take advantage and seek benefits from the healthy civic activism. This is the case both with the far right as well as the far left, so similar that they seem to be twins, as well as in the twisted outlook of Mexico City mayor López Obrador and his opportunist hordes. We must not allow them
to do so, but rather we must fight to save Mexico, and Mexicans, from the weapons that kill on a daily basis.

* President of the Latin American Circle for International Studies (LACIS) and the Fundación por la Paz en la Era Nuclear (FPEN), affiliated to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF).