A truck carrying migrants from India, Pakistan, Nepal and several other countries was fired upon by Mexican soldiers near the Guatemala border, resulting in the deaths of six migrants, Mexico’s Defence Department reported on Wednesday.
The soldiers claimed hearing gunfire as the truck and two other vehicles approached their position late Monday in Chiapas, near Huixtla.
Two soldiers fired on the truck and four migrants were found dead at the scene, and 12 others were injured. Two of the injured later died and the condition of the other ten remains unclear, The Asssociated Press.
The department did not specify whether the migrants died from the gunfire or if any weapons were found in the truck.
Seventeen other migrants in the vehicle were unharmed, making the total number of migrants 33. The area is a known smuggling route, where migrants are frequently packed into overcrowded freight trucks.
The department stated that the two soldiers who fired their weapons have been relieved of duty while investigations are ongoing. In Mexico, incidents involving civilians can lead to civilian prosecution, but soldiers may also be subject to military courts martial for such offenses.
This incident is not the first occurrence of Mexican forces opening fire on vehicles carrying migrants in the area, which is often the site of turf wars between rival drug cartels.
In 2021, the quasi-military National Guard fired on a pickup truck carrying migrants in the same region, resulting in one death and four injuries.
Irineo Mujica, a migrant rights activist who often accompanies caravans in Chiapas, expressed skepticism that the migrants or their smugglers fired at the soldiers.
“It is really impossible that these people would have been shooting at the army,” Mujica stated. “Most of the time, they get through by paying bribes.”
If the deaths resulted from army fire, as seems likely, it could pose a significant embarrassment for newly inaugurated President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on Tuesday.
Though the events took place just hours before Sheinbaum officially became president at midnight on Monday, she has continued the approach of former president Andres Manuel López Obrador by granting the armed forces significant powers in law enforcement, as well as in state-run companies, airports, trains and construction projects.
