The incident underlines the continued dangers for migrants and asylum seekers in border areas managed by legal gangs.
Two Mexican migrants have been shot lifeless on the Mexican aspect of the border with the USA, Mexico’s Nationwide Migration Institute stated.
The incident happened within the early hours of Friday morning. One other three folks suffered gunshot wounds however have been assisted by one of many institute’s emergency rescue groups, together with 9 others who weren’t injured.
Rescuers discovered the group of 14 Mexican nationals at daybreak on Cuchuma Hill close to Tecate, a metropolis within the border state of Baja California. By the point rescuers climbed as much as meet the group, two migrants have been already lifeless.
The rugged desert hillside is taken into account a sacred website by no less than one Mexican indigenous group, however can be utilized by human smugglers.
The reason for the taking pictures shouldn’t be recognized, however border crossings in sure areas could contain agreements with native cartels over rights of passage. Migrants and asylum seekers are typically shot lifeless if their smuggler works for a rival gang or in the event that they haven’t paid rights of passage.
Migrants and asylum seekers are additionally typically robbed by roving gangs of thieves and kidnappers in border areas.
In a single notable case in 2021, Tamaulipas state police shot and killed 19 folks on the border, together with no less than 14 Guatemalan migrants. A court docket not too long ago convicted eleven cops of homicide.
In that case, officers had initially claimed they have been responding to photographs fired and believed they have been pursuing Gulf Cartel autos. However state police burned the our bodies in an try and cowl up the crime.
The 2 deaths in Tecate are the most recent in a quickly rising variety of migrants and asylum seekers who’ve been killed or injured at Mexico’s northern and southern borders in a determined try to achieve the US.
A truck overturned on a freeway in Chiapas, considered one of three southern Mexican states bordering Guatemala, on Thursday, killing two Central American migrants and injuring one other 27.
And on Friday, Mexico’s Migration Institute stated 52 migrants have been touring in an overcrowded dump truck when the driving force misplaced management and overturned. The injured, together with six youngsters, have been taken to hospital, the place they have been all issued authorized asylum playing cards, as victims of against the law on Mexican territory.
Simply the day earlier than the crash, two extra Central American migrants died after attempting to board a transferring prepare in Coahuila state, close to the Texas border.
