TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Mexican state police killed four gunmen near the border with Guatemala, then pursued more suspects into that country in three armored police vehicles, where they engaged in a shootout in the streets of a border town. Authorities in both countries said Monday they were investigating.
The rare case of Mexican law enforcement crossing the border into Guatemala on Sunday in La Mesilla was captured by onlookers in videos widely circulated online. With the border crossing a short distance in the background, armed men in ballistic vests and carrying rifles can be seen shouting at the open driver side door of a Chiapas state police armored vehicle.
Suddenly, another such vehicle comes speeding through the border crossing from behind, scattering the armed men. The initial vehicle reverses back toward Mexico and a third armored police vehicle enters from a side street slamming a civilian vehicle into the side of the other armored police truck. Gunfire erupts with the police trucks and civilian vehicles getting hit by bullets.
All the while, a Guatemalan military truck with a soldier in the turret, sits in the middle of the melee.
It was the latest flare-up of violence along a section of the border that has become a flashpoint as rival Mexican drug cartels and their local affiliates battle for control of valuable smuggling routes for migrants, guns and drugs.
Asked about the events, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that everything appeared to show that Mexican authorities entered Guatemala.
“They are investigating it and it is not all right that has happened,” she said.
Chiapas state Gov. Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar criticized what he suggested were Guatemalan authorities protecting members of organized crime. His security chief, Oscar Aparicio Avendaño, told The Associated Press on Monday that police had used a drone to detect armed men crossing the border into Mexico.
Police intercepted them, killing four, including a local gang leader.
"They try to cross (back to Guatemala) to evade justice and that's where we intercept them and there's the shooting," Ramírez said. The police involved were part of a state police force called the Pakales, which have also been accused of wrongdoing.
Across the border in Guatemala, authorities were cautious in their initial response.
Guatemala Vice President Karin Herrera said Monday that the Guatemalan government was talking to Mexican authorities about what happened, “but there are many things that must be confirmed.”
Guatemala Defense Minister Henry Sáenz said none of the Guatemalan soldiers present in La Mesilla fired their weapons and that it remained under investigation.
The stretch of the Mexico-Guatemala border has seen near continuous violence in the past two years as the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels battle for control.
Last year, the violence spurred hundreds of Mexican residents to flee into Guatemala for safety. At other moments, towns have seen their power cut and cartel convoys parade through their communities.
Sunday's shootout was occurring on a narrow street lined with businesses. Opening fire with the machine gun mounted on the Guatemalan military truck in such confines or against Mexican police could have also exacerbated the situation.
For Arkel Benitez, a Guatemalan security analyst and lawyer, the problem is that what’s visible in the videos circulating is, at best, passivity by Guatemalan police and soldiers and, at worst, collusion in the face of something that was an obvious threat to Guatemalan citizens.
“It’s not about whether they followed protocol or not, it’s more the doubt generated by a confluence of circumstances that gives the appearance of the (Guatemalan) police not being there to repel a border incursion,” he said. “In the videos it appears the police are supporting these armed suspects.”
___ Associated Press writers Sara Melini in Guatemala City and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.
____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
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