WASHINGTON – Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives asked President Barack Obama on Friday for an improved strategy against the arms traffic to Mexico, beginning with the reinstatement of a ban on U.S. imports of assault weapons

In a letter sent Friday, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), and other lawmakers asked that efforts be made to step up the fight against the arms trade that fuels drug-cartel violence blamed for more than 10,000 deaths in Mexico over the past 2 1/2 years.

A ban on U.S. imports of assault weapons that was instituted under President George H.W. Bush and continued under the Clinton administration was quietly abandoned by George W. Bush, the letter pointed out.

Engel said the United States should have launched a strategy against arms trafficking on Oct. 22, 2007, the same date that Washington and Mexico City announced the Merida Initiative against drug trafficking and organized crime in Mexico and Central America.

In the missive, the lawmakers quoted a recent report from the General Accountability Office pointing out the problems facing the U.S. administration in combating the illegal drug trade.

The GAO report said, among other things, that 93 percent of arms traced and confiscated in Mexico in fiscal year 2008 came from the United States.

Some 19 percent of the arms confiscated in Mexico between 2004 and 2008 were made in third countries, imported into the United States and later sent to Mexico, Engel said.

The letter, also signed by Reps. Michael Castle (R-Del.) and Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), asks the U.S. government to activate the recommendations made by the GAO, including the establishment of mechanisms to improve coordination among government agencies.

In February, Engle was one of a group of 50 legislators from both parties that pressured Obama to reactivate the suspension of assault-weapon imports. EFE