RIO DE JANEIRO—Thousands of made-in-America weapons are pouring into Brazil and landing straight into the hands of gangsters every day, and the U.S. is failing miserably at stemming the flood.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), Brazil is home to roughly 8 million illegal weapons, more than half of which were smuggled from the U.S. The latest U.N.-sponsored report suggests that a little under 20,000 American weapons enter Brazil each year.
In Rio de Janeiro, local authorities believe that around 4,000 new illegal weapons arrive in the city each day. About a quarter of those are assault rifles, according to Christiano, a high-ranking Military Police commander in Rio de Janeiro who oversees operations to capture illegal guns off the streets.
“Once these weapons cross our national borders, we almost have no way to capture these guns before they end up in the wrong people’s hands,” Christiano told The Daily Beast.
Brazilian authorities working to contain the arrival of these weapons at the two main harbors serving Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are gravely under-resourced. And meanwhile, instead of helping curb the country’s influx of dangerous weapons, the U.S. has focused most of its efforts on pressuring Brazil to fight its illegal drug trade, forcing Brazilian authorities to relocate their meager resources to the war on drugs and leaving an open alley for gun-runners to infiltrate Brazil’s main commercial ports. “The U.S. government is worried about its domestic drug addiction issues, so it has put pressure on my country’s government to focus mostly on the drug trade instead of illegal weapons business,” an officer from the Secretaria Estadual de Policia Civil, Brazil’s civil police, explained.
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According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), Brazil is home to roughly 8 million illegal weapons, more than half of which were smuggled from the U.S. The latest U.N.-sponsored report suggests that a little under 20,000 American weapons enter Brazil each year.
In Rio de Janeiro, local authorities believe that around 4,000 new illegal weapons arrive in the city each day. About a quarter of those are assault rifles, according to Christiano, a high-ranking Military Police commander in Rio de Janeiro who oversees operations to capture illegal guns off the streets.
“Once these weapons cross our national borders, we almost have no way to capture these guns before they end up in the wrong people’s hands,” Christiano told The Daily Beast.
Brazilian authorities working to contain the arrival of these weapons at the two main harbors serving Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are gravely under-resourced. And meanwhile, instead of helping curb the country’s influx of dangerous weapons, the U.S. has focused most of its efforts on pressuring Brazil to fight its illegal drug trade, forcing Brazilian authorities to relocate their meager resources to the war on drugs and leaving an open alley for gun-runners to infiltrate Brazil’s main commercial ports. “The U.S. government is worried about its domestic drug addiction issues, so it has put pressure on my country’s government to focus mostly on the drug trade instead of illegal weapons business,” an officer from the Secretaria Estadual de Policia Civil, Brazil’s civil police, explained.
Continues...
How America Created a Gun-Happy Gangster’s Paradise in Brazil
Courtesy Jonathan AlpeyrieRIO DE JANEIRO—Thousands of made-in-America weapons are pouring into Brazil and landing straight into the hands of gangsters every day, and the U.S. is failing miserably at stemming the flood.According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), Brazil is...
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