Inter-American arms treaty

The inter-American arms treaty looks like it is going to be offered up and pushed as a fig leaf to Latin America during the upcoming Organization of American States summit. It was initially drafted by the OAS in 1997 as a smaller scale UN Small Arms Treaty but never went anywhere in the Senate when Clinton submitted it.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Administration officials say President Barack Obama will push for Senate ratification of a Latin American arms trafficking treaty.

The regional treaty, adopted by the Organization of American States, was signed by former President Bill Clinton in 1997 but never ratified by the Senate.

Officials say the inter-American arms trafficking treaty would curb guns and ammunition trafficking that threatens regional security. Officials say the move is meant to show the United States is serious about confronting a security threat on its doorstep.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone. As I noted a few weeks back, the amount of press coverage concerning the Mexican cartel violence and that 90% of the gun used by the cartel were supposedly coming from the US led me to believe something bigger was in the works and I suppose the resurrection of this “Inter-American arms treaty” was it .