“We are very concerned about gun violence in the region”- Daniel Erikson

The Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense was also questioned about the proliferation of firearms in Central America that are manufactured in the United States. A Bloomberg report published in July investigated how U.S. gun exports are fueling violence across the world.  According to Bloomberg, almost three hundred thousand semiautomatic firearms have been exported into Central America over the last seventeen years.  Neighboring Guatemala is the second largest importer in the region.

Daniel Erikson

Daniel Erikson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense

“We at large, we’re very concerned about gun violence in the region and illegal weapons trafficking. A lot of this is managed beyond the scope of the Department of Defense, per se, because it has to do, as you indicated in your question, with other agencies of the U.S. government. There was, as alluded to by my colleague from the Vice President’s office, a very important meeting that took place earlier this year, in the Bahamas with the representatives from the countries from across the Caribbean, where this topic was addressed. I think we’d be happy to share with you the readout from that meeting so you have more information on it.”