Mexican military kill six unarmed migrants on the country's southern border

Six migrants were gunned down early Wednesday by Mexican soldiers who reportedly mistook them for alleged criminals. It happened on a highway in the state of Chiapas, in southern Mexico, the Mexican Defense Ministry (Sedena) said Wednesday.

Four of the migrants died at the scene of the incident, while two others died while being treated at a hospital in the area, the Sedena reported.

The event occurred on the same day that Claudia Sheinbaum took office as Mexico's president. A few hours before the military killed the migrants, Sheinbaum stated in her inauguration speech that "there are no human rights violations."

On Tuesday, the spokeswoman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-HR) told the mayor that they are "concerned about the increasingly important role that the military has assumed in public security and other law enforcement functions."

The group of 33 migrants shot by the military was traveling in a convoy of three vans. There were Egyptian, Nepalese, Cuban, Indian and Pakistani citizens, according to Mexican authorities.

The Peruvian Foreign Ministry later reported that a Peruvian citizen was also among the victims, according to information provided by its Mexican counterpart, and "strongly" condemned the incident. Mexico has not reported the nationalities of the deceased.

In a statement released on X, the Peruvian government added that it will demand the Mexican authorities conduct "an urgent investigation to clarify and determine the responsibilities of this reprehensible act.”

The soldiers were reported to the attorney general’s office 

The events occurred around 20H50 local time on Tuesday (02h50 GMT) on a road located about 50 miles from Mexico's border with Guatemala, where the military were carrying out ground survey work.

One of the vans "was speeding" and "upon seeing the military personnel evaded," while the other two were "like those used by criminal groups in that region," the Sedena explained in the statement.

"Military personnel stated heard detonations, so two elements triggered their weaponry" causing the vehicles to stop, it added.

Local police reports indicate that the military chased the convoy for several miles and that one of the vehicles turned off the road in an unsuccessful attempt to outwit the soldiers.

The Sedena reported that another 10 migrants were injured, while the remaining 17 were unharmed and were handed over to the National Migration Institute.

It added that the two soldiers who fired the shots "were separated from their duties" and, since it was an incident that affected civilians, they were reported to the Mexican attorney general's office.

Drug traffickers' territory

The border state of Chiapas, one of the poorest in the country, has experienced a rise in clashes between the Jalisco Nueva Generación and Sinaloa cartels, Mexico's two largest criminal gangs.

According to the analysis center Insight Crime, the dispute is over control of key routes for trafficking drugs, weapons and migrants.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants arrive to Chiapas every year to make the last leg of their trip to the U.S. border.

Along the way they are often victims of organized crime, extortion by authorities and even traffic accidents.

Many also travel hidden in cargo trucks, in overcrowded conditions and subjected to severe mistreatment by human traffickers.