At least six migrants were killed in southern Mexico on Tuesday night after military officers shot at the vehicle they were traveling in. The episode called attention to a growing concern in Mexico — ever more powerful armed forces that operate with little oversight — and a continuing one, the dangers faced by migrants in the country.
Mexico’s defense ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the officers were doing “ground reconnaissance” in the state of Chiapas when they spotted a pickup truck traveling fast, and that the truck’s driver tried to evade the soldiers. Behind the pickup truck were two vehicles that the military said were similar to those organized crime groups in the region use: stakebed trucks, small flatbeds with fencing in the cargo area.
The officers may have mistaken the migrants for cartel members, according to the ministry defense ministry.
The military said the officers “heard explosions,” so two of them opened fire, bringing one of the trucks to a stop. It was carrying a group of 33 migrants from around the world. Four people died at the scene and two at a hospital, officials said. Ten others were injured. The rest were handed over to Mexican immigration officials.
The military did not say whether the migrants were armed.
On Thursday during her morning news conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico called the episode “regrettable” and said that “a situation like this cannot happen again.” She said an investigation was being opened into the soldiers who opened fire, as well as their superiors.
The six migrants who died, she added, were from El Salvador, Peru and Egypt.
The authorities did not immediately release the identities of the victims. A collective of migrant rights groups said in a statement that among the dead were four men, a woman and a girl. The groups of migrants who were targeted, the statement added, came from Nepal, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Cuba.
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