Contrabando de armas

México pidió apoyo a las autoridades de EE UU para ejercer un mayor control en el tráfico de armas que son utilizadas por los grandes cárteles: "hemos solicitado la ayuda de la ATF (Agencia de Alcohol, Tabaco, Armas de Fuego y Explosivos de Estados Unidos) y de otras agencias, de forma que podamos establecer un mayor control", dijo en una entrevista al diario The Dallas Morning News, el Procurador Cabeza de Vaca.

El periódico señala en un reportaje publicado ayer miércoles que autoridades y analistas citan al mercado negro internacional de armas, donde éstas pueden ser directamente comercializadas a cambio de drogas, como una fuente que podría estar proveyendo granadas a narcos.

Señala que grupos de narcotraficantes han adoptado nuevo armamento en los últimos años, como granadas de mano, conforme se agudiza la guerra entre ellos y las autoridades mexicanas incrementan el combate a los cárteles. "Creemos que muchas (de las granadas) están siendo probablemente adquiridas en Estados Unidos, como la mayoría de las armas", dijo el procurador. Empero, también admitió la posibilidad de que sean desertores del Ejército los proveedores.

Y las autoridades de EE UU reconocen la existencia de un comercio ilegal de armas a México, pero aseguraron que "no existe evidencia que muestre que granadas auténticas del gobierno estadounidense se estén viendo en México", dijo Rick Serrano, integrante de la ATF en McAllen, Texas.

Pero el reportaje señala varios casos donde se han empleado esos artefactos,a saber: el caso del Jefe de Seguridad de la Palma, Luis Fernando Mendoza, quien escapó de su vehículo justo antes de que explotara una granada; el caso del Diario El Mañana en Nuevo Laredo; los ataques con granadas en Acapulco,entre otros.

Analistas comentan que tanto las granadas y las armas, han sido tácticas adoptadas por los narcotraficantes en los últimos años. El columnista Javier Ibarrola señala que mientras que los proveedores de las armas para los narcos es EE UU, pero el comercio internacional ha traído Uzis israelís y AK-47s chinos.

Y en efecto, según la organización The Violence Policy Center (VPC), el número de comerciantes de armas de fuego en EE UU descendió en 10 años en un 78%; pasó de 245 628 a 54, 902 (1994 al 2005). La VCP recomienda que se hagan aún más estrictas las normas para la obtención y tenencia del permiso federal, que la ATF tenga autoridad para revocarlos y establecer sanciones, y que se aumenten los controles periódicos de las autoridades.

Reportaje en ingles del periódico:

The Dallas Mornig News, Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Grenades a top choice of Mexican drug cartels

By LAURENCE ILIFF / The Dallas Morning News

MEXICO CITY – The man partly responsible for keeping Mexico's top drug capos under lock and key was driving home last month when a hand grenade was thrown into his pickup. The security chief at La Palma prison, Luis Fernando Mendoza, escaped from the vehicle just before it exploded in a Mexico City suburb.

The targets of similar attacks have not been so lucky. Days earlier and hundreds of miles away, a journalist was paralyzed when a grenade blast and weapons fire filled the newsroom of El Mañana newspaper in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas.

Teenagers have been killed when the explosives have been hurled into "narco-stores" selling drugs not far from Acapulco's hotel-lined bay, which draws thousands of American spring breakers each year.

Three police officers died after being ambushed with grenades in the central state of Michoacán in January.

Hand grenades represent a powerful new weapon for Mexican cartels fighting the government and battling each other for control of the country's multibillion-dollar drug trade, and the danger spans the U.S.-Mexico border. In Laredo, authorities seized explosive devices in two raids this year, including military grenades, pipe bombs and bomb-making material.

In Acapulco, where at least a dozen of the explosives have been thrown at police installations over the last year, grenade confiscations are outpacing those of AK-47 assault rifles, long the narcos' weapon of choice.

And although innocent Americans in Mexico generally have been spared drug violence, the U.S. Embassy repeatedly has reminded visitors that such a threat is real.

A close call

Carol Davenport, a graduate of Dallas Baptist University, came close to a grenade blast at a Zihuatanejo beach hotel last month.

"It was a little unnerving because it happened just a few days after I was there," said Ms. Davenport, who is working on tourist projects on Mexico's Pacific Coast.

Ms. Davenport had left the modest hotel because it had no hot water. Otherwise, she might have stayed. One Mexican guest received minor injuries. The motive for the attack was unknown.

Analysts say the almost weekly grenade blasts are among weapons and tactics adopted by drug-trafficking groups in the last couple of years as cartel turf wars have grown more bloody and the Mexican military has been brought increasingly into the drug fight.

"These are not just for intimidation, not just to scare people, these are part of [the traffickers'] renovation of their armament," said Javier Ibarrola, a columnist on drug and military issues for Milenio magazine. "That they did not succeed in killing the La Palma security chief is incredible, because his truck was destroyed in the blast."

Where are the grenades coming from?

Authorities and analysts cite several likely sources: the international market for illicit weapons, where arms can be traded directly for drugs; stolen military grenades from the Mexican army or even U.S. sources; and homemade grenades using the metal shells that are simple and legal to purchase in the United States.

Mexican authorities generally blame U.S. sources for most of the weapons trade, given Mexico's strict laws on weapons and explosives.

"We believe that a lot of [the grenades] are probably being purchased in the United States, as the majority of weapons are," Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News.

"That's why we have asked for the help of the ATF [U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] and all of the other agencies so that we can establish greater control. Because with these weapons in the hands of criminals in our country, they become very dangerous."

Earlier this year, an Arizona man was sentenced to prison in the U.S. for trying to buy 30 grenades from undercover American law enforcement agents for $6,000. The man said the grenades were destined for drug traffickers in Mexico and also inquired about buying high-powered rifles to shoot down helicopters.

Military defectors

Mr. Cabeza de Vaca also acknowledged that defectors from Mexico's 200,000-strong military could be a source for grenades.

"[The grenades'] origin is not that easy to determine, [but] certainly this is military weaponry from the United States or from Mexico," he said. "They are not homemade."

U.S. authorities, while acknowledging the illegal weapons trade from north to south, say grenades for the U.S. military are not leaking into Mexico.

"Authentic American government grenades – there's no evidence to show that those are showing up in Mexico," said Rick Serrano, resident agent in the McAllen, Texas, field office of the ATF.

However, so-called re-packed grenades have been found on the U.S. side, he acknowledged.

"Down in Laredo, there were some Laredo residents" involved in making grenades, said Mr. Serrano. "Confiscated were some grenade-making materials and some assembled grenades."

At Texas gun shows or in Army surplus stores or catalogs, Americans can buy "hollowed out" grenades, basically just the shell with no explosives, Mr. Serrano said.

People then illegally pack those with explosives and a fuse, but these improvised weapons are inferior to the legally produced grenades, which feature carefully constructed timers.

"It's very difficult to replicate a real grenade," said Mr. Serrano.

Across the border from Laredo lies Nuevo Laredo, the main battleground in the drug war. The Gulf cartel based there is trying to maintain its traditional drug routes into the U.S. The Sinaloa cartel has launched a bloody challenge. Weapons caches found by increasing numbers of federal police and army soldiers inevitably include two or three or four hand grenades.

Mr. Ibarrola, the columnist, said that while U.S. sources are the most obvious weapon suppliers for the narcos, the international arms trade has brought Israeli Uzis, Chinese AK-47s and a variety of weapons left over from Central America's civil wars, to Mexico.

Mexico's defense minister, Clemente Vega García, said 200,000 weapons had been confiscated in recent years and are being held until criminal trials are concluded so they can be destroyed.

E-mail liliff@dallasnews.com