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Mexico's National Guard kills two Colombians and wounds four others on a migrant smuggling route near the United States

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's National Guard fatally shot two Colombians and wounded four others in a confrontation near the US border.

The shootings occurred Saturday on a dirt road near Tecate, east of Otay Mesa on the California border that is frequently used by Mexican migrant smugglers, the department said.

It was not clear whether the Colombians were migrants, but a Colombian who was not injured in the shooting was turned over to immigration officials, suggesting that they were.

Mexico's Defense Ministry, which controls the National Guard, did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.

If they were migrants, it would be the second time in just over a month that military forces opened fire on and killed migrants.

On October 1, the day President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, soldiers opened fire on a truck in the southern state of Chiapas, killing six migrants. That shooting killed an 11-year-old girl from Egypt, her 18-year-old sister and a 17-year-old boy from El Salvador, as well as people from Peru and Honduras.

Describing events near Tecate on Saturday, the Defense Department said in a statement late Sunday that a militarized National Guard patrol came under fire after spotting two trucks in the area.

A truck sped away and fled. The National Guard opened fire on the other truck, killing two Colombians and wounding four others. There was no immediate information about their condition and no casualties were reported among the guardsmen involved.

A Colombian and a Mexican were found at the scene and held unharmed, and officials said officers found a handgun and magazines commonly used for assault rifles at the scene.

Colombians have sometimes been recruited as gunmen for Mexican drug cartels, which are also heavily involved in migrant smuggling. But the fact that the survivor was handed over to immigration officials and that the Department of Foreign Relations contacted the Colombian consulate suggests they were migrants.

Cartel gunmen sometimes escort or kidnap migrants on their way to the U.S. border.

The three National Guard officers who opened fire were removed from duty.

Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who left office on September 30, gave the military an unprecedentedly large role in public life and law enforcement; He created the militarized Guard and used the combined armed forces as the country's main law enforcement agency, replacing the police. The Guard has now been subordinated to the army.

But critics say the military is not trained for civilian law enforcement work. Furthermore, the one-sided death toll in such confrontations – where all the dead and injured are on one side – raises suspicions among activists as to whether a confrontation really occurred.

For example, the soldiers who opened fire in Chiapas – and who were held pending charges – claimed they heard “detonations” before they opened fire. There was no evidence that any weapons were found at the scene.