Mexico is offering cash to take weapons off the streets: $1,200 for an AK-47 and $1,300 for a machine gun.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum On Friday, it officially launched a campaign to eliminate the number of guns on the violence-torn country’s streets.

The plan, titled “Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace,” would offer cash to those who leave their weapons anonymously at designated drop-off locations, including churches.

Gun owners will get 8,700 pesos ($430) for a pistol, 25,000 pesos ($1,200) for an AK-47 rifle and 26,450 pesos ($1,300) for a machine gun. Then the firearms will be destroyed.

The disarmament plan is part of the government’s “integrated strategy” to combat crime.

“Why should we teach our children anything about violence?” Sheinbaum said at the launch ceremony, which witnessed the symbolic destruction of the weapon by soldiers.

Children who attended the event with their parents were able to exchange toy guns for other toys.

The scheme, which was first introduced last month, was published in the country’s Official Government Gazette earlier this week.

It has been implemented in Mexico City since 2019, but will now be implemented nationwide, and will be implemented by the Ministries of Defense, Interior and Public Safety, with the support of Mexican religious authorities.

Mexico suffers from violent crime linked to the multibillion-dollar illegal drug trade.

In 2023, the country recorded 31,062 homicides, 70 percent of which were caused by firearms, according to preliminary data issued by the National Institute of Statistics.

Mexico imposes strict restrictions on arms sales, making them practically impossible to obtain legally, and has repeatedly urged Washington to address this problem. Cross-border arms smuggling from the United States.

An estimated 200,000 to half a million American firearms are smuggled into Mexico each year. “60 Minutes” reported. last month. Mexico has asked US lawyer Jonathan Lowe to help cut off the weapons pipeline known as “Iron River“.

“If you think fentanyl overdoses are a problem, if you think cross-border migration is a problem, if you think the spread of organized crime is a problem in the United States, then you should care about stopping the murder weapons pipeline to Mexico,” Lowe told the program. 60 Minutes in December. “And you have to stop it at the source. Because all of these problems are driven by the supply of American weapons to the gangs.”