My Take | US official targets chips for China, more gun sales to Latin America
- As well as being a main figure in tech war, Gina Raimondo helps put firearms in hands of murderers that send migrants fleeing to border
Regular Chinese news consumers may know US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo as one of the key officials in Washington responsible for restricting sales of advanced semiconductors to their country. But if you are from Latin America, you may know her playing a much lower-tech if deadlier role – as a saleswoman for American firearms for private US gunmakers.
It has long been the case that the United States is the world’s biggest arms dealer. But those heavy, military-grade weapons are at least carried out as transactions between independent states. It’s hard to see why Raimondo’s government should be promoting firearms sales to its unfortunate southern neighbours when armed Americans are already killing each other with aplomb.
The flood of firearms into Latin America has been identified as fuelling cartel drug wars and crime waves, including a drastic rise in murders that have contributed greatly to desperate migrants flooding to the US southern border.
Such firearms sales used to be regulated by the US State Department. Driven more by diplomacy and security concerns without a profit motive, it was much more stringent. It all changed when former US president Donald Trump switched oversight from the State to the Commerce Department. Raimondo took over the new mandate as one of sales promotion. And why not? The Joe Biden administration has done nothing to change it.
Since the 2019 regulatory change, for example, US gun manufacturers have been flooding Guatemala with firearms, pushing aside Brazil, a country with 12 times the population, as the No 1 market for US-made semi-automatic weapons, according to Bloomberg. The influx has pushed Guatemala ahead of Brazil, as the top destination for US-made semi-automatics in Latin America. Murders have since jumped, with 80 per cent involving guns. A leaked memo from Raimondo’s department identified Guatemala as a “unique opportunity” for US gunmakers. Talk about cold-blooded!
The Mexican government had earlier tried to sue 10 US gunmakers for weapon trafficking but the suit was halted by a US court because American laws make it extremely difficult to hold gunmakers legally liable. Last month, Mexico launched an appeal to try to revive the US$10 billion lawsuit involving such household names as Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co.