President Obama and Mexican President Calderon in Mexico City April 16.

Washington — Stemming the flow of illegal firearms into Latin America and the Caribbean from the United States is a significant concern because of the threat these weapons pose to people’s personal security and well-being, President Obama says.

Obama said during a late-afternoon press conference in Mexico City April 16 that he will seek U.S. Senate ratification of an inter-American arms trafficking treaty that is designed to curb the flow of illegal firearms and ammunition to drug cartels and other armed groups operating in the Western Hemisphere.

“We are absolutely committed to working in partnership with Mexico to make sure that we are dealing with this scourge on both sides of the border," Obama said after meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Obama’s visit, the first by a U.S. president to the capital in 13 years, was designed to send a strong signal that the United States stands with Calderon and his administration, which is engaged in a conflict against heavily armed drug cartels.

“At a time when the Mexican government has so courageously taken on the drug cartels that have plagued both sides of the borders, it is absolutely critical that the United States joins as a full partner in dealing with this issue, both through initiatives like the Merida Initiative, but also on our side of the border, in dealing with the flow of guns and cash south,” Obama said during an arrival ceremony in Mexico City.

Personal security is one of a number of issues that will be discussed at the Summit of the Americas April 17–19 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Leaders from the 34 democratically elected nations of the hemisphere are meeting to consider an array of issues that directly affect them such as the current economic crisis, energy issues and climate change and security.

The Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the international convention on November 14, 1997, and the Clinton administration signed the treaty after that. The treaty is formally known as the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials — it is known by its Spanish acronym CIFTA. The White House submitted the treaty to the U.S. Senate on June 9, 1998, but it has not yet been ratified by the Senate.

U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, and Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, have asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to take up and pass the pact as a way to help stem a recent escalation in violence from Mexican drug cartels. In addition, Feinstein also sent a letter to the president, urging him to support ratification.

The convention helps members of the Organization of American States combat the illicit trade in firearms that fuels drug violence, terrorism and organized crime, the senators said in a prepared statement. It requires signatories to criminalize the illegal manufacture and sale of weapons and establishes a marking and licensing system for the export and import of firearms.

The convention, which entered into force in July 1998, has been ratified by 29 OAS states, and four others, including the United States, have signed it.

“The convention will make the citizens of the hemisphere safer by helping shut down the illicit transnational arms market that fuels the violence associated with drug trafficking, terrorism, and international organized crime,” a State Department fact sheet says. “While strengthening states’ ability to eradicate illicit arms trafficking, this regional agreement is modeled on U.S. laws, regulations, and practices and protects the legal trade in firearms as well as their lawful ownership and use.”

The three-year, $1.4 billion Merida Initiative was developed by Mexico, Central American nations and the United States to help fight the drug cartels by enhancing law-enforcement training and military equipment and improving intelligence cooperation.

To further assist Mexico, the White House on April 15 named a former U.S. Justice Department official to lead efforts to crack down on drug-related violence along the U.S. side of its southwest border with Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the appointment of Alan Bersin, a former federal prosecutor, during a visit to El Paso, Texas. Bersin held the same post — dubbed “border czar” — during the Clinton administration.

And three Mexican drug gangs — the Sinaloa cartel, Los Zetas and La Familia Michoacana — have been placed on a list of significant foreign narcotics traffickers targeted for special sanctions, the White House said April 15. This action allows the United States to freeze all cartel assets in U.S. jurisdiction and bars Americans from dealing with organizations that may be linked or associated with these groups and their operatives.

For more information on the Inter-American Convention, please see this State Department fact sheet on America.gov.

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