Mexico Favors Israel for Weapons Imports by John Lindsay-Poland

Last year, as Israel carried out its ongoing genocide in Gaza and waged wider regional war, the Mexican government purchased more firearms from Israel than from any other country. The staggering figure—numbering nearly 18,000 assault rifles, light machine guns, and pistols—comes from Mexico’s report to the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). 

While Israeli weapons are purchased all around the world—2025 was a record year for the world’s seventh largest arms industry—the fact that one of the region’s few remaining progressive governments is deepening ties with the genocidal state raises serious concerns. Nevertheless, it was not all that surprising a revelation; since taking power in October 2024, President Claudia Sheinbaum’s approach to Israel—like that of her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)—has been mixed, much to the frustration of Mexico’s vibrant Palestinian solidarity movement. 

In the months before the attacks of October 7, 2023, Palestine’s diplomatic mission in Mexico was elevated to the status of an embassy. Nevertheless, in contrast to the region’s other progressive governments, first AMLO and then Sheinbaum refused to use the language of “genocide” to describe Israeli actions; the current president finally used the term in September 2025. Sheinbaum also declined to support the international Sumud Flotilla, which included Mexicans, that sought to bring humanitarian aid to Gazans.