Six migrants killed in Mexico after military fires at vehicle
Soldiers stand guard outside a hospital where injured migrants were taken after Mexican soldiers shot a group of 33 migrants in Tapachula
By Abel Alvarado, CNN
(CNN) — Mexican soldiers opened fire at a pickup truck carrying migrants, killing six people from Egypt, El Salvador, and Peru, in an incident that the country’s President Claudia Sheinbaum described as a “regrettable.”
The tragic event occured on Tuesday evening when soldiers spotted a vehicle carrying 33 migrants “going at high speed,” according to the Mexican Defense Ministry, known as SEDENA.
The statement alleged the vehicle had tried to evade a military patrol in Chiapas, a Mexican state bordering Guatemala.
“Behind the pick-up truck there were two vehicles like those used by criminal groups in the region,” the ministry said, adding that two soldiers reported hearing explosions leading them to open fire.
Four of the migrants died on the scene and two more in a nearby hospital, the ministry wrote. The incident also left 12 people injured.
Sheinbaum said Thursday that the deceased migrants are from Egypt, El Salvador, and Peru as she called for the incident “to be investigated and punished.”
Both soldiers involved have been removed from their posts and turned over to the Attorney General’s Office to “investigate how the events occurred,” the president said.
Violence has been on the rise in Chiapas as cartels fight for control of lucrative routes for smuggling migrants and drugs. The Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel have been engaged in a turf war in the area, with hundreds forced to flee their homes last January.
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