Mexican president says US soldier killed Mexican migrant

MEXICO CITY

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday that a US National Guard member killed a male of Mexican origin last Saturday.

Darwin Jose Garcia, 37, from the coastal state of Veracruz, was shot in Mexican territory in the border city of Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua by a US National Guard officer who fired shots across the Rio Grande.

Initial reports established that Garcia was injured and later treated at a Mexican hospital for a gunshot wound to his leg. But Lopez Obrador said the US officer killed the migrant.

"The Texas National Guard did kill a migrant in Juarez, that's true," Lopez Obrador said at a news conference.

US authorities did not disclose whether the victim was dead or alive but Mexican and American news outlets reported that the man was wounded and discharged from the hospital.

The El Paso Border Patrol reported the incident Monday but denied responsibility for the shooting. It blamed the Texas National Guard that has been stationed in the region since December 2022.

The soldier who shot the migrant is part of Operation Lone Star, a multi-billion dollar strategy enforced by Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott to stop migration from the south.

The operation has caused international outrage because of the inhumane treatment of migrants trying to reach the US.

Mexican authorities found the bodies of two Latin American migrants in early August in the Rio Grande River, bordering Eagle Pass, Texas.

One of the victims was found in barbed buoys placed in the river by the Abbott government.

The Mexican government has condemned the Abbott administration for causing the drowning of the migrants.