The Mexican government of Claudia Sheinbaum has launched the National Voluntary Disarmament Plan ‘Yes to disarmament, Yes to peace’, a program that aims to get the population to surrender their firearms in exchange for financial compensation.

The President, accompanied by the Secretaries of the National Defense, Navy, Security, National Guard, Interior and several local and religious authorities presided over the official act this Friday in the esplanade of the Basilica of Guadalupe. “Weapons are a symbol of violence and death. We do not want any family to have a gun in their home,” declared Sheinbaum, seeking to address the causes of violence in the country from early childhood

Several gun collection points will be installed in churches of all faiths, to then destroy them The campaign begins in Mexico City and from there it will move to other states heavily affected by violence such as Guanajuato, Baja California, State of Mexico, Tabasco and Guerrero. It is the first time that such a plan will be carried out on a national scale, after it was implemented in the capital, when Sheinbaum was head of government. Sheinbaum now seeks to take it to other particularly problematic municipalities.

The aim is to contribute to the prevention and reduction of homicides and femicides, but also of injuries and accidental deaths by firearms, mostly involving minors.

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