At least three people died and several more were injured during an armed attack on a migrant convoy in the Mexican state of Sonora on February 15, the state's attorney general, Gustavo Salas Chávez, confirmed this Monday.
Among the victims is a 4-year-old Ecuadorian child and two women, one of Peruvian nationality and the other of Honduras, according to Salas Chávez.
The social organization 1800 Migrante previously reported that more than 50 people had been victims of hitmen who opened fire near the community of Sáric, when the group was traveling through that area in the north of the country to reach the United States.
[ICE links migrants arrested for beating New York police officers to the Tren de Aragua gang]
However, Salas Chávez denied that there were more than 50 victims in the attack.
According to the official, preliminary investigations established that between 11 and 14 migrants were traveling in three vehicles when they were attacked by heavily armed individuals.
“That number of people [50] never existed, not even those who had passed through the area at that time.
Unfortunately, we do have to confirm the news of the death of three people, a minor and two women,” acknowledged the Justice prosecutor in Sonora, quoted by the EFE news agency.
Convoy of migrants is attacked by hitmen in Sonora, Mexico.
Local media indicated that the ambush left about 10 injured.
The armed attack against three trucks occurred on the Cerro Prieto-Sáric highway.
The migrants left the town known as La Reforma, in Sonora, and were heading to the border city of Nogales, according to authorities.
A surviving migrant, named Carlos, said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo that the hitmen used "weapons of war and grenade launchers or missile launchers" against the vehicles in which they were traveling.
At the moment, the prosecutor stated, the Mexican Army has detained eight people with heavy-caliber weapons, who are being investigated for their probable participation in the attack on the migrants.
Likewise, he added that there are other injured victims who are also detained, because apparently they were the people who were transporting the migrants to the border and who are being investigated by the Attorney General's Office for the crime of human trafficking.
The news about the attack did not become known until three days later when the law firm 1800 Migrantes, based in New York, reported on Sunday afternoon that according to the version of two witnesses there were more than 50 migrants among the victims.
"We never said how many dead and injured there were, that has to be clarified by the Mexican authorities, what we established based on the statements of two witnesses is that there are more than 50 victims of the incident because a larger number of migrants were being transported to the border with the United States, when the attack occurred,” said William Murillo, director of the office, in statements to EFE.
[The criminal megagang the Tren de Aragua is already in US cities such as Chicago and Miami: what is known and what it implies]
According to reports, the attackers wore blue military uniforms and high-caliber weapons.
The attacked vehicles were completely burned at the scene of the incident, according to local media La Silla Rota.
The site was cordoned off by elements of the National Guard and the
Sonora Prosecutor's Office.
This latest attack underscores the dangers migrants face when passing through Mexico's border cities, where they are often targets of kidnappings and extortion by criminal groups.
With information from
EFE.