Chiapas police crossed into Guatemala this Sunday to exchange gunfire with members of a criminal group, leaving a preliminary death toll of at least four, according to security reports in southern Mexico.
The shootout between members of the new “Pakal Immediate Reaction Force” corporation, led by the Morena government of Eduardo Ramírez, began after 12:00 p.m. in the town of Las Champas, in Frontera Comalapa, but extended to the town of Las Mesillas, in Huehuetenango, Guatemala.
On Sunday afternoon, residents reported the terror caused by gunfire that lasted several minutes in an area known for being a commercial corridor.
It was reported that a group of armed men traveling in several trucks, wearing tactical vests and carrying long weapons, clashed for up to 12 minutes in the La Unión neighborhood.
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“While in our country (Guatemala), our Army deployed and blocked one of its military vehicles in the middle of the road, while at another point, a military jeep was positioned, and that’s where the shootout between the Pakales, the criminals, and the army ensued,” said a resident of the region.
A Guatemalan source told Prensa Libre how the Mexican police crossed into the Central American country in their eagerness to capture the armed men.
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The intrusion prompted members of the Guatemalan Army to arrive at the border area in a J8 jeep, as well as a National Civil Police patrol.
“When they noticed our arrival, the vehicle—the alleged criminals’—reversed, and when they reached the border, a confrontation ensued,” he commented.
In a video captured by a local resident, Mexican police were seen clashing with the gunmen when another of Pakal’s vehicles crossed the border to reinforce their colleagues, and shots were fired.
After 2:00 p.m., the border was closed by Guatemalan authorities.
To date, no authorities, either Mexican or Guatemalan, have issued a statement on the incident, which occurred in an area where drug trafficking, as well as routes for trafficking arms and migrants, are disputed between several criminal groups, some of them the CJNG and the CDS.
Source: diario
