Mexico military's role in migrant massacre comes under sharp scrutiny

By Lizbeth Diaz

HUIXTLA, Mexico (Reuters) - A wooden fence, warped and battered by a crashing vehicle, is the only sign on this quiet dirt road of the six migrants killed by Mexican soldiers who opened fire on a pick-up truck here earlier this month.

While the military has said soldiers fired on a convoy they mistook for organized crime after hearing explosions, local residents interviewed by Reuters cast doubt on that account.

The killings occurred on the evening of Oct 1, just hours after Claudia Sheinbaum was inaugurated as Mexico's first female president, sparking renewed outcry over the role of the military in public security and the human cost of U.S. pressure to keep down the number of migrants arriving at its southern border.

Sheinbaum described the incident as "deplorable" and called for an investigation while pledging more broadly that there would be no impunity under her new government. But Mexico has a dismal record of successfully prosecuting violent crimes, with only about 1% of all crimes resolved, according to Human Rights Watch. Investigations, particularly when they target the armed forces, tend to peter out unresolved, most famously in the case of 43 students who disappeared in 2014 in which the army has been repeatedly implicated.

This month's massacre also underlines how security forces, under pressure to combat widespread lawlessness in states like Chiapas, can cause harm to vulnerable communities they are mandated to protect.

On a recent afternoon, residents and a police officer told Reuters of a worsening security crisis as smugglers increasingly transport migrants through this poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the town of Huixtla and some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Mexico's southern border with Guatemala.

Mexico's defense ministry has said two soldiers opened fired on the pick-up truck carrying migrants after hearing explosions. Four migrants died immediately while two more died in hospital. The soldiers have been detained and will be tried under military laws, a key issue for human rights activists who say the process lacks transparency.

"The ministry of defense, within its sphere of competence, reaffirms its commitment to act in strict compliance with the rule of law, under a policy of zero impunity and is attentive to requests from civil authorities to clarify the facts," it said in a statement after the incident.

Three residents said they heard no explosions, only the vehicle crashing followed by the sound of gunfire. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Residents said they also did not understand how soldiers could have confused the migrants for cartel members.

A half dozen paths could be seen through the long grass of fields growing beside the street where the killing happened where residents said migrants had fled after the shooting started. They could hear the cries of young children.

A police officer who arrived at the scene minutes after the attack, said the military's use of force appeared "excessive."

"You cannot fire shots at people who are not armed," he told Reuters, adding the military prevented local security forces from accessing the crime scene.

Mexico's defense ministry and presidency did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the accounts of the residents and the police officer.

Sheinbaum has given few details about her immigration policy but it seems clear she will continue to lean on the military and the National Guard, a militarized police force, to control migration in much the same way as her predecessor and mentor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

'URGENT' CHANGE OF POLICY

Civil society groups are urging Sheinbaum to change tack and reduce the use of the military to contain migrants, citing the murder of the six migrants as further proof the policy is not working.

Between Huixtla and Tapachula, a city right on the border with Guatemala, Reuters was able to identify at least six border checkpoints with military personnel, local police and immigration agents along a stretch of about 40 kilometers.

"It is urgent that the new administration of President Sheinbaum changes this strategy to avoid more abuses and human rights violations," said Israel Ibarra, a researcher at Colef, a center for the study of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Chiapas, where the attack took place, is a case in point for Mexico's failing security policy, experts say.

Until recently the state, although one of the country's poorest with a history of civil uprisings, was not known for cartel violence and was a popular tourist destination for its natural beauty and archaeological sites. Now it makes the headlines for a near-constant wave of clashes between rival criminal groups fighting for control of drug and human trafficking routes, forcing some residents to flee their homes.

From January to August, Chiapas recorded nearly 500 homicides, compared to 309 during the same period last year and nearly double the number recorded over those months in 2022.

In Tapachula, where many migrants first cross into Mexico and now wait for a U.S. asylum appointment, some say they are too afraid to leave the shelters.

"I'm not going to leave here until my (asylum) appointment," said Nadia, a 50-year-old Venezuelan migrant. "Even outside the shelters (criminal groups) are kidnapping."

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, editing by Adriana Barrera and Aurora Ellis)