Hernándeza, Gerardo and Zulia Orozco Reynosoa. 2021 ‘Regulatory Analysis of the Policy on Arms in Mexico.’ Estudios Fronterizos, p. 8. Mexicali: Autonomous University of Baja California. 17 November

Relevant contents

As public policy, the LFAFE is clear in involving the actors involved in its implementation. It is important to emphasize the role played by the prosecutor's offices and public ministries at the sub-national level (Article 77).

Generally, the SEDENA secures the weapons and the people who possess them and presents them to the local authorities, who in turn must prove, according to the investigations, that they are subject to Articles 83, 83 Bis, and 84.

However, in 2017, (…) 86% of those charged, more than 5 000, were released because Article 167 of the CNPP stated that the possession of weapons did not warrant pretrial detention and the prosecutors—according to Article 321—in their investigations did not prove that those charged posed a danger.The above was due in part to the entry into force in 2016 of the New Criminal Justice System—in which the CNPP updates were ratified— of an oral and adversarial nature, which, due to the lack of economic and human resources, as well as the lack of training of some operators of the security and justice system, represented the phenomenon of a "revolving door"(3) for those allegedly guilty of carrying firearms.

In 2021, the CNPP was amended to modify, among others, Article 167 to include preventive imprisonment for trafficking and possession of weapons for the exclusive use of the Army. Even so, the Public Prosecutor's Office and public ministries are the ones who must carry out their investigations, as a second process, to prove the alleged culprit as a member of organized crime, in order to complement the judicial investigation and form the case.

(…) these types of regulatory loopholes have allowed the country to have 1.7 million illegal firearms in possession of private individuals.

[CNPP = National Code of Criminal Procedures
LFAFE = Federal Firearms and Explosives Law
SEDENA = Secretary of National Defense]

Last accessed at:
https://ref.uabc.mx/ojs/index.php/ref/article/view/991