Six migrants died on Tuesday night after the Mexican Army opened fire on vehicles that attempted to evade military personnel carrying out patrols in the southern state of Chiapas, the Defense Ministry (Sedena) said.
Ten other migrants were injured in the incident, which occurred on a highway north of the city of Tapachula, located near Mexico’s border with Guatemala.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday morning that those killed were from Egypt, El Salvador and Peru.
The Collective for the Monitoring of the Southern Border, an umbrella group of migrant advocacy and civil society organizations, said in a statement that four men, a young woman and a girl were killed.
The incident occurred just nine hours after Sheinbaum was sworn in as president, and on the eve of the 56th anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City, in which the Army opened fire on protesting students.
Sedena said in a statement on Wednesday that the shooting occurred on the highway between Huixtla and Villa Comaltitlán. The ministry indicated that soldiers mistook the migrants for criminals.
Ahora fueron balazos, no abrazos.
Militares victimaron a balazos en Chiapas a 6 migrantes e hirieron a 12 más, al confundirlos con integrantes de cártel.
Hechos anoche en tramo Villa Comatitlán-Huixtla.
Fue hallado camión con víctimas; había árabes, hindús, nepalíes, cubanos. pic.twitter.com/nYXd2eJAs5— Jesús Rubén Peña (@revistacodigo21) October 3, 2024
“At approximately 8:50 p.m. on Tuesday Oct. 1, 2024, members of the Mexican Army, while carrying out ground reconnaissance, detected a pick-up style vehicle traveling at high speed,” Sedena said, adding that the vehicle “evaded” the military personnel after its occupants saw them.
Sedena said that two stake bed trucks “like those that crime groups in the region use” were traveling behind the pick-up truck.
“Military personnel said they heard explosions so two soldiers fired their weapons,” the ministry said, adding that one of the stake bed trucks subsequently came to a halt.
“Upon approaching, military personnel identified 33 migrants of Egyptian, Nepalese, Cuban, Indian, Pakistani and Arabic nationality, of whom four had died, 12 were injured and 17 were unharmed,” Sedena said, apparently referring to Saudi Arabian citizens in the latter case.
“The military personnel administered first aid to the injured and immediately transferred them by vehicle to the General Hospital in Huixtla, Chiapas, where unfortunately two more [migrants] lost their lives,” the ministry said.
“The 17 unharmed migrants were placed in the custody of the National Immigration Institute,” Sedena said.
The Defense Ministry said that the two soldiers who fired their weapons were stood down.
It also said that the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) was notified of the incident given that “civilians were affected.”
Sedena said that the FGR would investigate and determine “responsibilities” in the case.
At her Thursday morning press conference, Sheinbaum said that the two soldiers who shot the migrants were in the custody of the FGR.
Correspondent Isaín Mandujano for @ElFinanciero_Mx in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas: @SEDENAmx suspended two soldiers for their role in a shooting yesterday, in which six undocumented migrants were killed and ten others wounded, pending investigation. https://t.co/sL8fkQowTB
— Jan-Albert Hootsen (@jahootsen) October 3, 2024
“First of all it’s a regrettable event, and it has to be investigated and punished. The personnel of the Defense Ministry who fired are already in the custody of the Federal Attorney General’s Office,” she said.
“It’s the Attorney General’s Office that has to do the investigation about how the events occurred,” Sheinbaum said, adding that it will be up to the FGR to determine whether Army commanders are also at fault.
“A situation like this can’t be repeated,” said the new president.
Sheinbaum also said that the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Interior Ministry were in contact with the embassies of the countries from which the victims came.
The deaths of the six migrants came just one day after former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed into law a constitutional bill that places the National Guard under the control of Sedena. There are concerns that the increased militarization of public security in Mexico will increase the risk of abuses being committed by the country’s security forces.
Mexican Army and navy personnel have previously been accused and/or convicted of a range of crimes, including murder.
Peru condemns the killings
In a statement, Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “strongly” condemned the events that caused the deaths of six migrants, including one Peruvian national.
“The government of Peru, through its diplomatic representation in Mexico, will demand that the authorities of that country [carry out] an urgent investigation that … determines responsibility for this reprehensible act,” the ministry said.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will provide humanitarian assistance to … the family members of the [Peruvian] victim in these difficult circumstances,” it said.
The UN expresses concern
In a joint post to the X social media platform, the Mexico offices of the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed their “concern” about the events in Chiapas that led to the death of six migrants and the wounding of 10 others.
For its part, the Collective for the Monitoring of the Southern Border said that “these events are neither accidental nor isolated.”
“They are a consequence of the restrictive immigration policies that the Mexican state continues to implement,” the group said.
In recent years, Mexico has used federal security forces to detain migrants, large numbers of whom enter the country via the border with Guatemala and then travel northward via a variety of means with the ultimate objective of reaching the United States. Cartel violence has plagued the border region in Chiapas in recent times.
Federal security forces have previously opened fire on migrants, including in 2021, when the National Guard killed a Cuban man in Chiapas and wounded four others.
Mexico has came under pressure from the United States to do more to stem the flow of migrants to the border. At certain times during López Obrador’s six year term in government, enforcement against migrants was ramped up, including in 2019 after former U.S. president Donald Trump threatened to impose blanket tariffs on Mexican goods.
The number of migrants entering the United States between official ports of entry has recently declined after the current U.S. government implemented a new, more restrictive, border policy in June.
With reports from El Economista, El Universal, Milenio and Reuters
