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

MEXICO CITY — 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 ministry said in a statement that soldiers claimed they heard gunshots as the trucks and two other vehicles approached their position in the southern state of Chiapas near the town of Huixtla late Monday.

Two soldiers opened fire on the truck 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 12 injured.

Two of the wounded later died from their injuries. There was no immediate information about the condition of the other ten people. The ministry did not say whether the migrants died in the army fire or whether weapons were found in the truck.

There were 17 other migrants in the truck who were uninjured. The vehicle was carrying a total of 33 migrants. The area is a common smuggling route for migrants, who are often crammed into overcrowded trucks.

The agency said the two soldiers who opened fire have been relieved of duty pending an investigation. In Mexico, any incident involving civilians is subject to civilian prosecution, but soldiers can also be tried in military courts for these crimes.

It is not the first time Mexican forces have opened fire on vehicles carrying migrants in the area, which is also the subject of turf wars between rival drug cartels.

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

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

“It is really impossible that these people shot at the army,” Mujica said. “They usually get away with bribes.”

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

Although the events were thought to have occurred a few hours before Sheinbaum officially became president at midnight on Monday, she has followed the example of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and given the armed forces extraordinary powers in law enforcement, state-owned enterprises, airports, Trains etc. granted construction projects.