Mexico City, Mexico – The Mexican government expressed skepticism on Tuesday regarding the alleged shooting of U.S. border officers by Mexican cartel members at the border, which was reported by U.S. media amid the Trump administration’s threats of military intervention in Mexico against the cartels.
News stories of a supposed shootout between Border Patrol agents and “suspected cartel members” were widely spread by conservative news outlet Fox News on January 27, citing that the armed men attacked the officers while undocumented immigrants attempted to cross the Rio Grande river between the bordering states of Texas and Tamaulipas.
President Claudia Sheinbaum denied that the U.S. had filed any official inquiries regarding the supposed shootout. Yet, she was clear about the consequences such claims entail for Mexico as President Donald Trump has launched an anti-immigration program and promised military action against drug cartels in Mexico.
“We all need to be responsible at this moment, always, but particularly at this time,” she said.
“A note was received at one of the consulates that is not exactly related to the information that appeared in the media, but nevertheless, I asked the prosecutor – or it was requested that the prosecutor formally conduct an investigation,” the president added.
The attack, which U.S. authorities have not yet confirmed according to Mexican officials, happened exactly one week after Trump stepped into office and enacted a series of decrees that made the shared border with Mexico a potential target for military intervention.
During his first day as the 47th President of the United States, Trump signed a decree declaring an emergency at the U.S. southern border and declaring drug cartels as Foreign Terrorists Organizations, a policy that harks back to Trump’s campaign threats to intervene militarily in Mexico to fight drug cartels.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Mexico’s Prosecutor General Alejandro Gertz Manero said that Mexico has officially requested all information regarding the shootout from the U.S.
“And it seems that two areas need to be investigated: First, who carried out those shots if indeed they were fired. And second, the movements of the migrants,” explained Gertz Manero.
As of Monday, 1,500 to 1,600 military troops have been deployed along the U.S. border, joining 2,500 National Guard troops patrolling the shared border with Mexico.
“Nothing can be done until we have confirmation of whether there is indeed a complaint from U.S. authorities that would justify us starting the investigation. That’s what was immediately done, and I believe we will have an answer in a very short time,” he said.
