'River of iron': Guns flow from US to Mexico

By Marco Mierke Dec 1, 2011, 9:35 GMT

Washington - When US border control officer Brian Terry was shot to death in Arizona on December 14, 2010, an already messy undercover operation became a catastrophe.

The AK-47 assault rifle that fired the lethal round was sold to a Mexican drug cartel with the help of the US government, in a disastrous scheme that US Attorney General Eric Holder has sworn 'must never happen again.'

When the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) supplied thousands of weapons to middlemen to smuggle into Mexico from 2009-11, the secret Operation Fast and Furious aimed to trace the weapons supply routes across the border to Mexican drug gangs.

But in a failure that has embarrassed the Justice Department, the ATF lost track of as many as 2,000 weapons, including the assault rifle that killed Terry.

The Fast and Furious debacle remains a potent symbol of Washington's inability to halt the flow of weapons into Mexico.

Last year alone, the Mexican drug war claimed more than 15,000 lives - drug lords, law enforcement, politicians and cartel footsoldiers and civilians.

With Mexico's tough firearms laws, the cartels run guns from abroad. And their best source is right next door, a neighbour with constitutional protection for gun rights supported by lax laws.

Testifying to Congress in November, Attorney General Eric Holder pointed out nearly two-thirds of the 94,000 weapons confiscated in Mexico in the last five years could be traced to the United States. A Senate report published in June says many were large-calibre 'military-style' assault weapons, able to punch holes in bulletproof vests and even shoot down aircraft.

For complicated weaponry, the route south is unsettlingly simple.

In most cases, straw buyers for drug cartels purchase guns legally, either from the 8,000 licensed US dealers or at gun shows within easy distance of the Mexican border. Legal loopholes allow unlicensed dealers to sell guns at shows without criminal background checks or registration - making weapons bought through those channels practically untraceable.

After changing hands, the guns are submerged in the normal flow of crossborder commerce - no secret tunnels or homemade submarines needed. Congress' Government Accountability Office found southbound inspections were rare at border checkpoints.

Once over the border, the guns fuel a deadly war that has so far overwhelmed Mexico's local and federal forces.

In his testimony, Holder called on Congress to broaden the ATF's powers and tighten gun registration laws to avert what he called a 'public safety crisis.' His appeal echoed long-standing concerns.

President Barack Obama, shortly after his 2009 inauguration, admitted: 'The drugs are coming north, we're sending funds and guns south,' and vowed a change.

When Mexican President Felipe Calderon spoke to the US Congress last year, he pleaded for lawmakers to cut off what he called a 'river of iron' flowing south. But that's easier said than done in Washington.

Federal gun-control initiatives face overwhelming popular resistance. The 4 million-member National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the nation's most powerful lobby groups, spent more than 7 million dollars in the 2010 congressional elections defending the constitutional right to 'keep and bear arms.'

In a recent commentary, NRA chief Wayne LaPierre called the charge that the Mexican drug war is being waged with American guns a 'shameless lie.' He pointed to the Fast and Furious scandal itself, in which alleging that the government 'forced' US gun dealers to sell to the drug bosses.

The political gridlock on gun control is a serious crisis, says the Brady Centre to Prevent Gun Violence, a leading group advocating stricter firearms laws.

'Mexican drug cartels are fighting an escalating war that has killed thousands, threatens to destabilize our southern neighbour and poses an increasingly grave security risk to the US,' the group wrote in a 2009 appeal to Congress.

The Brady Centre echoed Democratic leaders' calls for Congress to strengthen gun laws and reinstate a national ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004.

But in a country where even a presidential candidate, Texas Governor Rick Perry, waxes poetic about his 'long love affair' with guns, stopping the flow of weapons to Mexico may be a long shot.