Mexico City, Mexico — National Guard officers shot and killed two Colombian nationals in Baja California, northwestern Mexico, on November 2, according to a statement from Mexico’s Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA).
It is the second time in a month that security forces have attacked migrants in Mexico.
SEDENA released a statement saying that a National Guard patrol opened fire after it was shot at by armed civilians traveling in a truck.
“A gunfire exchange ensued against the National Guard personnel, who returned fire, causing one of the vehicles and its occupants to flee,” read the statement. “As a result, two people were killed, four were injured, and one was unharmed, all of Colombian nationality. Additionally, one Mexican male was arrested.”
A statement from the Colombian Ministry of Foreign relations said it is working with Mexican authorities to get more information on the killings and is working with the family of the victims.
Local news outlet Zeta Tijuana, citing interviews with victims, has published reporting that goes against SEDENA’s official account, saying the attack was unprompted and that the immigrants in the truck were unarmed and traveling to the US-Mexico border.
“We didn’t have any weapons, we’re not criminals, we never fired at them,” one of the surviving victims told the Baja California-based media outlet, which also reported that authorities did not find any firearms or bullet casings inside the truck the immigrants were traveling in.
Four Colombian migrants who survived the shooting were taken to the hospital for their injuries. Twenty-year-old Ronaldo Andrés Quintero Peñuelas died from gunshot wounds to the head and chest, and Yuli Vanessa Herrera Marulanda, 37, died from a gunshot to the head.
This is the second attack by security forces on migrants traveling through Mexico in a month as the country continues to militarize its policing of immigration to the US-Mexico border.
On October 1, army soldiers fired at a truck transporting 33 migrants, allegedly mistaking them for armed criminals, in Chiapas on Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala. The attack resulted in 12 injured and six murdered migrants from Egypt, El Salvador, and Peru.
In that case, the military also originally accused migrants in the pick-up truck of shooting first at soldiers, although that theory was later disproved by the military itself.
Read More: Mexico’s military killed six migrants from Egypt, El Salvador and Peru in Chiapas
The increased violence against migrants by Mexico’s armed forces may be a symptom of the country’s militarization of its migration policy.
“The securitization and militarization of migration control, which has advanced in recent years by the federal government, is certainly related to the increase — both in terms of scope and cruelty — of risks, violence, and human rights violations against migrants,” Sergio Luna, coordinator of the Network for Documentation of Migrant Defense Organizations (REDODEM), told Aztec Reports.
Rights organizations like REDODEM highlight that Mexico’s migration authorities have deepened their military ties since former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in 2018.
Moreover, the creation of the National Guard, initially conceived as a civilian police force and later adhered to the army under López Obrador’s heeding, has strengthened the presence of the military in public security strategies and migration control.
“The National Guard and the National Institute of Migration (INM) both have military training and include high-ranking military profiles within their structure, such as military officers, for example, in the National Institute of Migration and now, of course, in the National Guard,” explained Luna.
By June 2023, 14 out of the 32 National Immigration stations were under the control of former military officials.
Throughout López Obrador’s administration, a growing number of military troops were deployed to contain migratory flows. By 2022, his government had increased the number of soldiers and National Guard members focused on immigration by 46%.
Moreover, the National Guard is the most dangerous security agency in Mexico in terms of human rights violations, amassing 1,772 complaints for different abuses that range from the use of excessive force, torture, forceful disappearance, and murder.
“So, this is where we stand — concerned because this militarization points to a larger crisis, an intensification of the humanitarian crisis related to the flow of people,” said Luna.
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