In a violation of the Treaty on the Arms Trade (TCA), the Mexican government allowed in 2018 and 2019 the export of armored units used by the police of Cali (Colombia) during the violent protests that left dozens injured and killed and that whipped this southern nation -americana in April and May last.
In 2018, the Colombian company 7M Group sold to the National Police (PN) of Colombia, Depending on the Ministry of Defense, Five units for a total of 1,880,000 dollars, according to figures given by the government of the South American nation to the system of trade statistics of the United Nations (HIM-HER-IT).
The following year, the operation consisted of six vehicles worth $ 1.4 million.
The Colombian company 7M Group SA sold the five International-launched, black-and-burner water-lance tanks under the modality of the price framework agreement for the acquisition of vehicles, according to purchase order 26444 of March 12 of 2018, consulted by THE UNIVERSAL.
The PN justified the operation to require the acquisition “to ensure the lives of uniformed personnel attending to cases of social protest and public order at the country level.”
On November 22, 2018, the National Police requested the modification of the purchase order due to delays so that the units could leave the port of Altamira, in Tamaulipas, bound for the Colombian port of Cartagena.
The institution received the units on December 14, 2018 and exempted the company from paying 19% VAT, equivalent to about $ 29,000, according to tax exemption certificate 0330 signed by the general Jorge Hernando Nieto, Then director general of the PN. Invoice 1500008678, issued on December 31, 2018, records this exemption.
Centigon México SA de CV, Mexican subsidiary of the Centigon security group -property of the Chinese conglomerate Dongfeng Design Institute Co. Ltd..-, sold the vehicles to 7M, which provides consulting services, vehicle supply and brand representation and offers two types of tanks for transporting personnel and another water lance. Centigon has a plant in Mexico City, another in San Pedro (Nuevo León) and another in Bogota.
The second operation is reflected in the purchase order 46090-2020 of March 13, 2020, with extensions marked for October 30 and December 31 of that year. The PN received the vehicles last December 25th.
These armored cars are classified in category II of the HIM-HER-IT, As they are designed and equipped to carry four or more crew, armed with a weapon or a missile launcher.
the Secretary of Foreign Affairs (SRE), the body responsible for notifying the sale and purchase of weapons to the ATT, did not report these shipments to the secretariat of the treaty, to which it belongs and which has been in force since 2014, or to the UN Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA, in English).
In its 2018 and 2019 reports, the Mexican government omitted the export of these vehicles. In addition, there is no evidence of the issuance of the end-user certificate, which assesses the risk of equipment and materials contributing to potential human rights violations in the importing country.
the TCA, Which Colombia signed and has not ratified, regulates cinternational trade in conventional weapons, From small arms to tanks, aircraft and warships, and seeks to prevent and eradicate the illicit exchange and diversion of conventional weapons through the application of transfer standards.
Mexico, which presented its 2020 annual report on May 28, has been one of the strongest promoters of the treaty, due to irregular arms trafficking since United States in Aztec territory and that feeds the violence that has plagued the country since the 2000s. In addition, it co-chairs the Group on Transparency.
Transparency in the flow and control of arms is one of the commitments of the Chamber of Action Plan of the Alliance for Open Government, composed of civil servants and representatives of civil society.
The SRE said the issue is the jurisdiction of the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena), who sent the journalist to ask the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (Inai).
From 2018, Sedena has not issued armored export licenses nor has it delivered end-user certificates, according to answers provided via Inai, which raise questions about conducting risk analyzes contained in the ATT.
The Colombian crisis, triggered by the failed fiscal reform undertaken by the government has left at least 44 dead and about 650 injured.
Katherine Aguirre, expert in reducing armed violence in the Igarapé Institute of Cali, i Luis Emil Sanabria, President of the National Network of Citizen Initiatives for Peace and Against War (Redepaz) of Colombia, question the role of these trucks in cities like Cali.
The units that left Mexico were used in Cali, Colombia, experts and NGOs say. Photo: Facebook Live Users “Made in Cali”
The units “arrived at a time when the escalation of violence in the framework of the protests had not come at the time it arrived. In the violent protests, Colombia faced the existence of weapons that “We have called for a major source of victimization for the protesters. he tells EL UNIVERSAL.
For Sanabria, armored vehicles are used to run over people. “So call them unconventional or non-lethal, they have been shown to have a high lethality, depending on how they are used. And in Colombia they were used as offensive weapons. The fact that the truck, with all the equipment it carries, water jets, bomb triggers, is a flagrant violation of the treaty, “he accused in front of this publishing house.
The Mexican section of Amnesty International (AI) confirms the presence of these units on Colombian streets. “It is verified that they were used in acts of excessive use of force, improper use of firearms. There are recordings, photographs and videos, and we were able to verify through our audiovisual equipment the numbering of vehicles with what Mexico transferred to Colombia, ”he explains Edith Olivares, Acting Executive Director of AI.
structural defects
The operation reflects systemic failures in the SRE, Sedena, which issues the export licenses; the PN and the customs of both countries.
Montserrat Martínez, researcher at the organization Control Arms in Mexico, Explains to EL UNIVERSAL that Mexico violated article seven of the TCA, by not conducting a risk assessment that the marketed equipment could be used to commit human rights violations for use in repression during social protests.
The vehicle “could sell armored, though not equipped; but if it had the capacity to equip-, it had to report-,” he notes.
Jorge Restrepo, director of the Resource center for the Conflict Analysis of Colombia, Points out a lack of due diligence, especially because it is a country -Colombia- where “there is a situation that involves serious violations of human rights.”
“Mexico cannot claim that it did not know who it was exporting to. It is a failure to catalog the customs authority [mexicana], But the Colombian Customs also failed [DIAN], Since it had to demand the procedure for the nationalization of the good. [El sistema] it does not have to rest only in the cataloging of the export “, analyzes the expert.
The TCA stipulates that the parties undertake to establish and implement a control system for these assets, for use also contains provisions.
Both countries do not report directly to UNROCA of arms exports and imports, but via its trading partners. But the whole scaffolding around the treaty has no grievance and sanction mechanisms for non-compliance.
The TCA’s 2020 Monitoring Report, based on 2018 figures, notes that Mexico excluded some data for reasons of “trade sensitivity / national security“And he did not specify how much information he withheld. Mexico also recorded zero exports in 2018.
Photo of used vehicles in Colombia that the Centigon brand has in place. Photo: Centigon
The SRE has already opened an internal investigation into exports. “Mexico has played a very important role in negotiation and vigilance in the treaty and that is why it seems important to us to maintain this avant-garde role and to apply risk analysis under the ATT and take this opportunity to review its export policy, ”Olivares proposes.
Last May, a collective of organizations called on exporters to immediately suspend permits for defensive and potentially lethal material in Colombia for “thorough review” and curb exports and cooperation in the face of evidence serious human rights violations, And urged the review of the conditions of sending equipment and services to control crowds and riots.
Restrepo suggests transparency and accountability to prevent the recurrence of these exports. “It’s not about banning access, it’s about putting all the measures in place so that they can’t be used for human rights violations,” he advises.
The Seventh Conference of the Parties to the TCA will be held in Geneva, Swiss, From August 30 to September 3, an opportunity to question the referred operations.
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