Six migrants were shot dead near the Guatemalan border when Mexican army troops opened fire

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Six migrants are dead after Mexican soldiers opened fire on a fleeing truck near the border with Guatemala, Mexico’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The department said in a statement that soldiers claimed they heard shots as the trucks and two other vehicles approached their position late Monday in the southern state of Chiapas, near the town of Huixtla.

Two soldiers opened fire on the truck, which was carrying migrants from Egypt, Nepal, Cuba, India, Pakistan and at least one other country. Soldiers then approached the truck and found four of the migrants dead and twelve injured.

Two of the injured later died of their injuries. There was no immediate information on the condition of the remaining ten. The department did not say whether the migrants were killed as a result of army fire or whether weapons were found in the truck.

There were seventeen other migrants in the truck, who were unharmed. The vehicle was carrying a total of 33 migrants. The area is a common route for smuggling migrants, who are often packed into overcrowded trucks.

The department said the two soldiers who opened fire were relieved of duty pending the investigation. In Mexico, any incident involving civilians is subject to civil prosecution, but soldiers can also face a military court-martial for these crimes.

It is not the first time Mexican troops have opened fire on vehicles carrying migrants in the area, which is also the focus of battles between warring drug cartels.

In the same area, the quasi-military National Guard opened fire on a pickup truck carrying migrants in 2021, killing one and wounding four.

Irineo Mujica, a migrant rights activist who has regularly accompanied caravans of migrants in that area of ​​Chiapas, said he doubted whether the migrants or their smugglers opened fire.

“It is really impossible that these people would have shot at the military,” Mujica said. “They usually get through by paying bribes.”

If the deaths were the result of army fire, as seems likely, it could prove a major embarrassment for newly inaugurated President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on Tuesday.

Thought the events took place just hours before Sheinbaum formally became president at midnight Monday, she has followed the example of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in giving the armed forces extraordinary powers in law enforcement, state-owned enterprises, airports, trains and other areas . construction projects.

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