President Claudia Sheinbaum urged citizens to take part in the “Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace” initiative, promising those who were skeptical that giving up guns would not result in legal action.

“It’s about establishing locations, such as church lobbies, where people can go, to voluntarily surrender their firearms and provide them with financial incentives to do so,”

Sheinbaum stated at a press conference. “Next year, this will start. The former mayor of the 9.2 million-person capital city of Mexico City added, “We also had it there, and it had significant results.”

A component of the government’s “integral strategy” to combat crime is the disarmament plan. According to Sheinbaum, one of its tenets is to advance a culture of peace, particularly in areas where organized criminal violence is a problem.

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography released preliminary data showing that firearms were responsible for 70% of the 31,062 killings that occurred in Mexico in 2023.

Conflicts between criminal organizations over control of roads or drug markets are responsible for almost three-quarters of homicides, according to former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Illegal weapons smuggled in from the United States are another reason given by the Mexican authorities for the outbreak of violent crime.

In order to do this, Mexico has sued American arms dealers, and on Friday, the US Supreme Court will consider whether the complaint is admissible.

–Deeprows News