Six migrants killed in Mexico after military shooting at vehicle

CNN
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Mexican soldiers opened fire on a pickup truck carrying migrants, killing six people from Egypt, El Salvador and Peru. The country's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, described the incident as “regrettable.”

The tragic event occurred on Tuesday evening when soldiers spotted a vehicle carrying 33 migrants “driving at high speed,” according to Mexico’s Defense Ministry, known as SEDENA.

The statement claimed the vehicle was attempting to evade a military patrol in Chiapas, a Mexican state bordering Guatemala.

“Behind the pickup truck were two vehicles like those used by criminal groups in the region,” the ministry said, adding that two soldiers reported hearing explosions, which prompted them to open fire.

Four of the migrants died at the scene of the accident and two others died in a nearby hospital. wrote the ministry. 12 people were also injured in the incident.

Sheinbaum said Thursday that the deceased migrants were from Egypt, El Salvador and Peru and called for the incident to be “investigated and punished.”

Both soldiers involved were removed from their posts and handed over to the attorney general's office to “investigate how the events occurred,” the president said.

Violence is rising in Chiapas as cartels fight for control of lucrative migrant and drug smuggling routes. The Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel have been embroiled in a turf war in the region that forced hundreds from their homes last January.