Mayor’s Assassination Shows Mexican Government Can Only Operate with Consent of Cartels

“The mayor of the capital of Mexico’s violence-plagued state of Guerrero was killed on Sunday less than a week after he took office, the state’s governor confirmed,” Reuters reported Sunday. “The official confirmation came after photos circulated on messaging app WhatsApp depicting a severed head on top of a pick-up truck, appearing to be that of Arcos.”

“Arcos’ death comes just three days after the new city government’s secretary, Francisco Tapia, was shot to death,” the report adds.

So much for what Senator Alejandro Moreno called “young and honest officials who sought progress for their community.” So much for Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado being “fill[ed] with indignation.”  The message is clear: If they perceive “reformers” to be a sufficient threat, the brutal cartels will not just remove them but do it in a barbaric way that sends anyone thinking of crossing them a clear and deadly message.

So much for Mexico’s vaunted “gun laws” that do nothing but ensure the people will continue to be ruled by public and private warlords.

And so much for short public memories over the propaganda push that led to Operation Fast and Furious. Possibly because no one of import was actually punished for the criminal “gunwalking” plot that has led to untold numbers of Mexican and U.S. citizens being killed, the usual political, academic, and media characters are back to blaming “lax U.S. gun laws” for the ubiquitous bloodbaths feeding demands to disarm more potential victims.

“’Exit Wounds’ finds the majority of gun violence in Mexico is committed with guns from the U.S.,” Boston’s National Public Radio outlet, WBUR claimed. “Host Deepa Fernandes speaks with Brown University associate professor Ieva Jusionyte about her new book ‘Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border,’ which is a deep dive into how and why guns from the United States are continually flowing into Mexico.”

How deep? Does it conclude, “Because the gun-prohibitionist Democrats want the border open, so they have more illegal aliens to shunt onto their ‘pathway to citizenship’ and attain an unchallengeable majority”? But don’t take my word for it: take Chuck Schumer’s (and funny, how none of the major national and state “gun rights” groups are willing to acknowledge that a politician’s “immigration” votes have a direct impact on the “single issue”).

But if gunwalking is still an issue, tell us the “bulk gun purchase” and four border state rules didn’t work without telling us the “bulk gun purchase” and four border state rules didn’t work. Did anyone capable of critical thinking really believe they would, or that the motive behind imposing them was anything other than more incremental infringements on the way to new gun bans?

Or that “straw purchased” semiautos represent the real firepower of the cartels? There’s a new Wall Street Journal report published Saturday, “The American Guns That Mexican Cartels Covet: A Visual Guide.” Among the favorites, multi-barreled full autos and belt-fed SAWS.

Straw purchasers sure don’t get those from FFLs or though “gun show loopholes.”

Where the cartels get them from are corrupt government officials in their pockets. From them and from stuff flowing in across Mexico’s southern borders.

“Ordnance crossing into Mexico over border—its southern one,” I reported in 2011. “Additionally: Some have been taken/bought/stolen from the Mexican army itself.”

We knew that then and we know that now—it’s just those whose goal is to disarm U.S. gun owners, and their media cheerleaders, don’t want the public they’ve spent so much energy lying to in on the “secret.” But the information is there for anyone with an open mind to follow source links and prove to themselves.

“Conviction of Top Mexican Cop Shows Corruption Problem, Not U.S. Guns,” I reported for Firearms News in March 2023. “Former Mexico Public Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna is guilty of drug trafficking, also showing new points on American guns in Mexico.”

“The Supreme Court agreed to hear the gun industry’s challenge to the Mexican government’s lawsuit against them,” Legal Insurrection, among many others, is reporting. “The Mexican government sued the big gun companies, accusing them of fueling cartel violence in the country. The government also blamed America’s gun laws. The government wants $10 billion.”

Mexican prohibitionists ignoring the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act to effect U.S. citizen disarmament are creatures that can only operate at the behest of cartel monsters who decapitate to terrorize.

“I expect our side to win. What I’m most curious of is what the Democrat judges will do, and how they will rationalize their arguments if they side with Mexico,” I noted on my The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance blog. “Between SCOTUS now taking on both this and frames/receivers, how any gun owner can justify not voting and letting Kamala Harris reshape the Court is beyond me.”

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.