The government has admonished Mexican residents to surrender their firearms at designated churches in exchange for a reimbursement fee.
The new initiative aimed at citizen disarmament was announced on Tuesday by President Claudia Sheinbaum, who urged community members to engage in the “Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace” initiative.
He reassured those who may have concerns that they would not face legal repercussions for relinquishing their weapons.
This disarmament initiative is a component of the government’s comprehensive strategy to combat crime.
Sheinbaum emphasized that one of its core objectives is to foster a culture of peace, particularly in areas affected by violence from organized crime.
“It’s about setting up places like the lobbies of churches where people can go to turn in their weapons voluntarily and give them economic incentives to give up their firearms,” Sheinbaum said during a press conference on Tuesday.
“This is going to begin next year. We also had it in Mexico City and it had significant results,” added the former mayor of the capital city with 9.2 million inhabitants.
In 2023, Mexico reported a total of 31,062 homicides, with approximately 70% of these incidents involving firearms, as indicated by preliminary statistics from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.
Former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador noted that nearly three-quarters of the homicides are associated with confrontations between criminal organizations vying for control over transportation routes and drug markets.
The Mexican government also links the surge in violent crime to the influx of illegal firearms smuggled from the United States.
In response to this issue, Mexico has initiated legal action against arms dealers in the United States, with the US Supreme Court scheduled to review the case’s admissibility on Friday.
