Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday unveiled a nationwide marketing campaign aimed toward lowering the variety of firearms on the nation’s violence-stricken streets.
The initiative, named “Sure to Disarmament, Sure to Peace,” incentivises residents to anonymously give up weapons at designated drop-off factors, together with church buildings, in trade for money. Compensation charges embrace 8,700 pesos ($430) for a revolver, 25,000 pesos ($1,200) for an AK-47 rifle, and 26,450 pesos ($1,300) for a machine gun. All surrendered firearms will likely be destroyed.
“That is about defending our communities and guaranteeing a future the place our kids don’t develop up surrounded by violence,” Sheinbaum acknowledged on the marketing campaign launch occasion in Mexico Metropolis, which featured troopers symbolically destroying a weapon.
The programme features a distinctive contact for youngsters, who can commerce toy weapons for different toys, stating the marketing campaign’s dedication to fostering a tradition of peace.
Initially carried out in Mexico Metropolis in 2019, the disarmament initiative will now lengthen nationwide. Will probably be managed by the ministries of protection, inside, and public security, with assist from non secular organisations.
The plan is a part of the federal government’s broader technique to fight crime, which stays a significant problem in a rustic stricken by violence tied to the multibillion-dollar unlawful drug commerce.
In 2023, Mexico recorded 31,062 homicides, 70 per cent of which had been linked to firearms, in accordance with preliminary information from the Nationwide Statistics Institute.
Mexico’s strict gun management legal guidelines make it almost not possible for civilians to legally buy firearms.
The federal government has constantly referred to as on the USA to crack down on arms trafficking throughout the border, which fuels a lot of the nation’s violence.
