This incident marks another friction point between Mexico and Texas due to Governor Abbott’s anti-immigrant policies.
On Thursday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) accused the Texas National Guard of violating international law by shooting a Mexican man in the Rio Grande, the river shared by Mexico and the United States.
“It’s a violation of international law because you can’t shoot from the U.S. side to the other side of the river, which is already our territory,” he said.
The Mexican president referred to an incident that took place on Saturday on the bank of the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez, bordering the U.S. city of El Paso, where a National Guard member fired from U.S. territory into Mexico.
While it was initially mentioned that the victim was a migrant, local authorities identified the victim as Darwin Garcia, a 37-year-old man from Veracruz, who was on a dirt path used by runners and cyclists for exercise over 10 meters from the riverbed.
“Texas authorities argue that it was in defense of a migrant, that the injured person wanted to harm a migrant, and that’s why he fired into the air and then at the person,” said AMLO, announcing that the Mexican government has initiated an investigation into this incident.
On Wednesday, officials from the Mexican Consulate in El Paso met with representatives of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), expressing that the incident is “unacceptable” and voicing their concern about the impact on human rights and migrant safety.
“The injured person in Ciudad Juarez was fortunately discharged yesterday. However, there is an ongoing investigation, and the person who fired from the Texas Guard has been temporarily suspended from duty pending a full investigation,” AMLO stated.
This incident marks another friction point between Mexico and Texas due to Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s anti-immigrant policies.
On Aug. 3, AMLO labeled Abbott as “inhumane” following the deaths of two individuals in the Rio Grande, where Abbott had placed buoys and a wire fence to prevent migrant crossings.
The Mexican Foreign Affairs Ministry has sent three diplomatic notes to Washington to lodge complaints about the buoys, alleging that they violate migrants’ human rights and international water treaties.
So an injured migrant (how did he get injured?) was on the Mexican side of the border. Was approached by a guy on a motorcycle. And the Texas guard decided to shoot the guy? Because, according to the Texas Guard, e was trying to harm the migrant?
So… Obviously made up story to justify what is still an illegal act.
These guys have abandoned all pretense of adhering to the rule of law.
been temporarily suspended from duty pending a full investigation
and the classic US way of “paid vacation for (attempted) murder”
Yeah just like all the rapists do, right?
Military justice is a joke, hidden from public eye.
No, wait, you don’t understand. The guys who signed up to round up and (possibly) kill migrants were trying to protect a guy in another country. /s
Just a reminder the republican platform is we should invade and bombs Mexico, that’s what they say we should do
An act of war, you say.
I wonder why those Americans were shooting people in a river in the first place. That’s their solution to everything, shoot people. Got a problem? Shoot at it.
If you’re so smart, how do you turn the light switch off after you get in bed without firing a shot?
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It’s worse than that. The shots were fired across the river into Mexican territory. The national guard should know their authority on that type of situation. This was a major fuck up and they are definitely being chewed out for the mountains of paperwork he just created. Stuff like this isn’t easily swept under the rug, especially if our southern neighbor pushes the issue.
Hmm but we can’t apply that to the problem most of the country has with the Texas government, a weird double standard
I guess that you are joking, and I disagree with their stupid policy, but it’s not really that weird for policies to be different in the border of a country with inter country borders. It’s not a double standard, they are clearly two well defined different standards.
It’s not on the border it was on the other side of the border, the guy with the gun was on the Texas side of the border
“Texas authorities argue that it was in defense of a migrant, that the injured person wanted to harm a migrant, and that’s why he fired into the air and then at the person,” said AMLO
Pretty sure that’s still illegal.
Illegal yes, morally wrong, I would say no.
If(and it’s a big if) this is an accurate statement, then defending a presumably innocent person from harm should take higher priority than complying with jurisdictional boundaries.
We must invade Texas to restore the rules-based international order and to bring about freedom and democracy.