UPDATE 1-Mexican Catholic bishops condemn the killing of six migrants by soldiers

(New throughout, adding statement from Catholic bishops, responses from foreign governments)

MEXICO CITY, Oct 3 (Reuters) –

A group of Mexican Catholic bishops on Thursday condemned the killing two days earlier of six migrants by Mexican soldiers in the south of the country, and the bishops called for an investigation into the incident.

Six migrants were killed and 10 were injured on Tuesday in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas after soldiers shot at the pickup truck they were traveling in.

A statement from a migration-focused subgroup of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference said the group “emphatically rejects the disproportionate use of lethal force by agents of the state.”

“The Mexican state is obliged to conduct a serious, impartial and effective investigation,” the statement said.

The victims came from Egypt, El Salvador and Peru, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said.

The deaths have raised more questions about the military’s growing role in Mexican policy toward migrants.

“This tragedy does not arise as an isolated event, but as a result of the militarization of migration policies and an increased presence of military forces on the country’s southern border, which is a constant,” the bishops’ group said.

The U.S. has pressured Mexico to reduce the number of migrants arriving at the border, where record numbers of people have attempted to cross in recent years, fleeing economic hardship and violence.

“It is a regrettable event and must be investigated and punished,” Sheinbaum said at a news conference Thursday morning.

She said the attorney general’s office was investigating the incident, but did not say whether any action had been taken against the soldiers.

“A situation like this cannot be repeated,” she added.

Mexico’s Defense Ministry said soldiers opened fire after the pickup truck carrying 33 migrants tried to evade a military patrol.

The Defense Ministry said soldiers reported hearing explosions before the officers opened fire.

On Wednesday, Peru’s Foreign Ministry condemned the killings in a statement saying the government would demand that Mexican authorities “conduct an urgent investigation to clarify and determine the responsibilities of this despicable act.”

The office of El Salvador’s president did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Egyptian embassy in Mexico told Reuters it had no information about the incident.

A security crisis is growing in the southern Mexican region near the border with Guatemala, where a territorial battle between powerful drug cartels has led to a sharp increase in violence over the past year. (Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez and Lizbeth Diaz; additional reporting by Nelson Renteria in San Salvador; Writing by Laura Gottesdiener and Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Click for restrictions – https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html