Mexico asks U.S. to stop flow of guns

MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Felipe Calderon used a two-day visit to the violent city of Ciudad Juarez to deliver a pointed message to the United States. Standing a stone’s throw from the U.S.-Mexico border, and flanked by some of his government’s top security officials, Calderon switched to English to say, “No more weapons!”

“Dear friends of the United States,” he continued in English. “Mexico needs your help to stop this terrible violence we are suffering.”

Driving home the point, the president unveiled a dramatic billboard in which the words “No more weapons” were formed by 3 tons of seized guns, melted and chopped up like so many building blocks.

The Mexican government has repeatedly urged U.S. officials to take stronger steps to stop the flow of military-caliber guns southward into Mexico, including a call to revive the assault-weapon ban that expired during the last Bush administration.

Revelations that hundreds of weapons also came into Mexico as part of the so-called Fast and Furious operation, courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, only exacerbated the problem.

Calderon was in Ciudad Juarez, the deadliest city in Mexico, to assess government efforts to stem the violence.