Fire vs. Fire: the powerful .50 caliber rifle (banned) that makes Mexico to fight drug traffickers.

It's a powerful and far-reaching weapon. Reliable, but deadly. This is the .50 Barrett rifle, the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) It aims to manufacture to increase the capacity of its elements, mainly those deployed in Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Chihuahua.

The team designed by Barrett Firearms¡ Manufacturing Inc. is marketed to armed forces groups from at least 30 countries as Germany, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Belgium, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Denmark, Spain, the United States, the Philippines, Finland, the United Kingdom, France, Greece, among others.

In addition to piercing light armor and armored glbad, the arsenal is able to easily penetrate type IV bullet-proof vests and most building materials of a building.

Sedena wants a weapon of this scale, but of national manufacture. The first step is to design a prototype. For that, the agency has submitted an investment project to the Ministry of Finance for 24 million 186,000 399 pesos for the acquisition of the necessary infrastructure, research and development

According to the weapons factory, once the first copy is available, the cost of manufacturing each rifle will cost 70,000 pesos plus the acquisition of the telescopic sight. Thus, the manufacture of the device will be 73 percent cheaper, concerning the American company, which sells each unit at 427,376 pesos.

Military, armed before organized crime

The capabilities of Mexican armed forces barely manage to suppress protests, suppress insurrections and contain precarious organized crime.

The above is said after the figures of military armament that reported that the The Mexican army operates with a deficit of 324 .50 caliber sniper rifles.

A total of 81 units of the army can not properly perform their surveillance and patrol activities where intervention with fire on targets is required at distances greater than 1500 metersbecause they lack long-range precision rifles.

These 81 patrols perform surveillance work three times a day, so that they leave 972 daily operations, which represents 354,000 780 trips without efficiency each year.

In front of this scenario, Sedena describes which require high precision guns. For example,

"According to military information, a group of foreign guerrillas is trying to enter our country through the southern border, for which vigilance and patrol units are deployed. An army unit observes a helicopter coming down from foreign guerrillas in our country. The order received is to make the plane useless; However, it is located about 700 meters. If the military unit receiving the order has a .50 cal. Shotgun, it can shoot down the plane.On the contrary, the guerrillas will descend on the national territory and planes will take off.

International treaties are a point against military defense, because According to these, the Mexican army can not use sophisticated weapons because the country is not at war as such.

Attorney Juan Velázquez badured El Universal that "the inconvenience between the narco and the armed forces is greatbecause they would be accused of committing a war crime against the civilian population when using weapons of great power. "