Mexican police kill 4 gunmen, cross into Guatemala in dramatic border shootout
TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Mexican state police killed four gunmen near the border with Guatemala, then pursued more suspects into that country in three armored police vehicles, where they engaged in a shootout in the streets of a border town. Authorities in both countries said Monday they were investigating.
The rare case of Mexican law enforcement crossing the border into Guatemala on Sunday in La Mesilla was captured by onlookers in videos widely circulated online. With the border crossing a short distance in the background, armed men in ballistic vests and carrying rifles can be seen shouting at the open driver side door of a Chiapas state police armored vehicle.
Suddenly, another such vehicle comes speeding through the border crossing from behind scattering the armed men. The initial vehicle reverses back toward Mexico and a third armored police vehicle enters from a side street slamming a civilian vehicle into the side of the other armored police truck. Gunfire erupts with the police trucks and civilian vehicles getting hit by bullets.
All the while, a Guatemalan military truck with a soldier in the turret, sits in the middle of the melee.
It was the latest flare-up of violence along a section of the border that has become a flashpoint as rival Mexican drug cartels and their local affiliates battle for control of valuable smuggling routes for migrants, guns and drugs.
Asked about the events, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that everything appeared to show that Mexican authorities entered Guatemala.
'They are investigating it and it is not all right that has happened,' she said.
Chiapas state Gov. Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar criticized what he suggested were Guatemalan authorities protecting members of organized crime. His security chief, Oscar Aparicio Avendaño, told The Associated Press on Monday that police had used a drone to detect armed men crossing the border into Mexico.
Police intercepted them, killing four, including a local gang leader.
'They try to cross (back to Guatemala) to evade justice and that's where we intercept them and there's the shooting,' Ramírez said. The police involved were part of a state police force called the Pakales, which have also been accused of wrongdoing.
Across the border in Guatemala, authorities were cautious in their initial response.
Guatemala Vice President Karin Herrera said Monday that the Guatemalan government was talking to Mexican authorities about what happened, 'but there are many things that must be confirmed.'
Guatemala Defense Minister Henry Sáenz said none of the Guatemalan soldiers present in La Mesilla fired their weapons and that it remained under investigation.
The stretch of the Mexico-Guatemala border has seen near continuous violence in the past two years as the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels battle for control.
Last year, the violence spurred hundreds of Mexican residents to flee into Guatemala for safety. At other moments, towns have seen their power cut and cartel convoys parade through their communities.
___ Associated Press writers Sara Melini in Guatemala City and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
33 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Fugitive's girlfriend charged with aiding breakout at New Orleans jail where she once worked
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authorities arrested a former New Orleans jail employee on Monday and accused her of aiding in the 10-inmate breakout at the facility last month, which included an escape by her boyfriend — a convicted murderer. The former jail employee, Darriana Burton, 28, is one of at least 16 people arrested and accused of aiding the escape of the inmates on May 16. Authorities said only two remain at large: her boyfriend, Derrick Groves, and Antoine Massey, who is facing charges of rape, kidnapping and domestic battery. The group of inmates escaped by yanking open a faulty cell door, removing a toilet, crawling through a hole and scaling a barbed wire fence in the early morning hours when a lone guard left to get food. Two days before the escape, Groves made a FaceTime video call to Burton using a jail-issued iPad. During that call, she helped him speak with a man who police did not identify. The conversation was 'intentionally vague' and appeared to coordinate communication on other, unmonitored lines, according to a police affidavit for Burton's arrest. In another call shortly after, the same man warned Groves against escaping, saying it would be a 'bad move' that would trigger a manhunt. He told Groves to seek release via the judicial system. The exchange showed Burton's direct role in helping with Groves' escape, according to the arrest affidavit. Burton faces a felony charge for conspiracy to commit simple escape. According to other police reports, Burton also allegedly 'picked up' and transported another fugitive, Lenton Vanburen, to a relative's home during his escape. Burton began working at the jail in 2022 and was fired the following year after she was arrested on allegations of bringing a folding knife and a bag of Cheetos containing tobacco and marijuana into the jail. The charges were dropped in part due to her lack of criminal history, and she 'successfully completed' a pretrial diversion program, the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office told The Associated Press. 'I categorically deny any involvement in introducing contraband into the jail or assisting in any escape,' Burton said May 30 in a text message to The Associated Press. 'These allegations are false and I intend to fully defend myself through the proper legal channels.' Agents with the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service coordinated Burton's arrest after obtaining a warrant on May 27. She was taken into custody in the Plaquemines Parish jail, authorities said. Burton and Groves 'were in an on-again, off-again relationship for three years," dating back to the time when she was still working in the jail, authorities said. 'We will continue to pursue anyone and everyone who has aided and abetted these criminals. We will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you to the full extent of the law," Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement. 'We will arrest all aiders and abettors, and we will eventually get Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves back to prison where they belong.' ___
New York Post
41 minutes ago
- New York Post
LA anti-ICE rioters enrage locals with revolting anti-American displays and contempt for law and order: ‘Everything that is happening is very bad'
LOS ANGELES — Rioters called for the destruction of the US and spit on a flaming American flag while chanting 'burn it down' in a sickening caught-on-video display — as the violent protests entered their fourth day in the City of Angels. The sickening scene unfolded Sunday night as other rioters looted businesses and rained bricks, scooters and other deadly missiles onto cops from a highway overpass. And many Angelinos are fed up with the anti-American madness. 'Everything that is happening is very bad,' said Maria Fabila, owner of a Mexican dress shop near the site of a rash of smash-and-grab looting Sunday night, adding that customers have forfeited deposits on dresses and suits because they're afraid to go out in the streets. The protests began Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed a series of raids around the city, rounding up more than 100 illegal immigrants. Hundreds took to the streets in opposition, waving anti-ICE signs and Mexican flags while facing off against cops and federal immigration officers. Anti-ICE protesters burned and ripped up American flags. CAROLINE BREHMAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock But the demonstrations soon descended into anarchy in downtown LA and the nearby cities of Compton and Paramount on Saturday and Sunday night — as rioters burned cars, vandalized public buildings and property and even looted local businesses, much of the destruction captured on video. An ICE source told The Post the protesters — whether they know it or not — are advocating 'for the actual criminals … sex offenders and the terrorists' the agency is targeting in its raids, exhibiting a gross misunderstanding of who is guilty or innocent. 'You have criminals, gang members, terrorists, child molesters, sex offenders that are being arrested, but since people don't know the background of the case or what's going on, everybody's innocent,' the source described. 'And that's who they're protesting for, the actual criminals that are being arrested, the sex offenders, the terrorists, all that.' Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of downtown LA throughout the weekend — including at least one group with ties to the Democratic Party and another linked to the Chinese Communist Party. Disturbing footage of one downtown riot shows a rowdy mob setting an American flag on fire in the streets, spitting on Old Glory as a man with a bullhorn spewed anti-American slogans through a megaphone to egg on the braying herd. One group of demonstrators burned an American flag in the middle of the street while angrily spitting at Old Glory. AFP via Getty Images 'This is not just a gesture, this is something we need to make real. We need to take down this empire once and for all,' the man called out to the crowd, some of whom stepped into the circle to spray the flag with lighter fluid. On Sunday night, the havoc devolved into looting as thugs smashed their way into businesses — including a Foot Locker, a T-Mobile store and a local convenience shop — and helped themselves to anything that wasn't nailed down. In an act of absolute lawlessness, a gang of hoodlums rushed inside the shoe store and emerged minutes later with large stacks of Nike sneakers still in the box as onlookers cheered them on. Footage of inside the businesses filmed through the destroyed front doors showed the stores had been virtually picked clean by the criminal thugs, who fled into the night with their plundered lucre. Pedro Perez, who was working at a Boost Mobile store in a Compton strip mall that was hit by vandals, said the criminal behavior ran counter to the stated purpose of the protests. 'Spray painting and all this damage, that's not helping anybody. And right here whey they were spray painting, mainly all these people are all Hispanic owners,' he told The Post. 'The whole point is to be united, and you guys are damaging your own people's businesses. I just think it's stupid.' Most residents interviewed by The Post in this bright blue city said they blame Trump for escalating the situation — even as they acknowledged that the rioters are making everything worse. Earlier Sunday, at least 2,000 anti-ICE protesters took over LA's 101 Freeway, bringing traffic to a standstill as California Highway Patrol officers in riot gear responded and corralled the crowd onto an exit ramp, forcing them off the roadway. The freeway briefly reopened, but was shut down again around 7:30 p.m. after rioters began hurling objects including bricks onto southbound lanes, damaging police cards, the LAPD said. The simmering violence became so out of control that President Trump ordered the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard to Los Angeles on Saturday, and mobilized 700 active-duty Marines early Monday evening. California's lefty Gov. Gavin Newsom said he plans on filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the National Guard deployment, and dared Trump's border czar Tom Homan to slap him in cuffs in an interview with NBC News. 'Come after me. Arrest me. Let's just get it over with, tough guy,' he taunted. This prompted the president to fire back that he would arrest Newsom if he was Homan. Speaking on MSNBC Monday, Homan said the ICE raids that sparked the riots in the first place had nothing to do with rounding up migrants. They were part of an ongoing criminal investigation into money laundering, tax evasion and customs fraud. 'It was to serve of three criminal warrants at locations based on a large criminal conspiracy that ICE is investigating,' Homan told the outlet. However, ICE was spotted operating across Southern California again on Monday — with federal law enforcement sources saying, 'We're going harder now … we're not backing down.' The Justice Department said that anyone who broke the law will be found and punished. 'This Department of Justice is actively investigating several cases for prosecution and working to identify any rioter who broke federal law.'
The Hill
44 minutes ago
- The Hill
Mexican police kill 4 gunmen, cross into Guatemala in dramatic border shootout
TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Mexican state police killed four gunmen near the border with Guatemala, then pursued more suspects into that country in three armored police vehicles, where they engaged in a shootout in the streets of a border town. Authorities in both countries said Monday they were investigating. The rare case of Mexican law enforcement crossing the border into Guatemala on Sunday in La Mesilla was captured by onlookers in videos widely circulated online. With the border crossing a short distance in the background, armed men in ballistic vests and carrying rifles can be seen shouting at the open driver side door of a Chiapas state police armored vehicle. Suddenly, another such vehicle comes speeding through the border crossing from behind, scattering the armed men. The initial vehicle reverses back toward Mexico and a third armored police vehicle enters from a side street slamming a civilian vehicle into the side of the other armored police truck. Gunfire erupts with the police trucks and civilian vehicles getting hit by bullets. All the while, a Guatemalan military truck with a soldier in the turret, sits in the middle of the melee. It was the latest flare-up of violence along a section of the border that has become a flashpoint as rival Mexican drug cartels and their local affiliates battle for control of valuable smuggling routes for migrants, guns and drugs. Asked about the events, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that everything appeared to show that Mexican authorities entered Guatemala. 'They are investigating it and it is not all right that has happened,' she said. Chiapas state Gov. Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar criticized what he suggested were Guatemalan authorities protecting members of organized crime. His security chief, Oscar Aparicio Avendaño, told The Associated Press on Monday that police had used a drone to detect armed men crossing the border into Mexico. Police intercepted them, killing four, including a local gang leader. 'They try to cross (back to Guatemala) to evade justice and that's where we intercept them and there's the shooting,' Ramírez said. The police involved were part of a state police force called the Pakales, which have also been accused of wrongdoing. Across the border in Guatemala, authorities were cautious in their initial response. Guatemala Vice President Karin Herrera said Monday that the Guatemalan government was talking to Mexican authorities about what happened, 'but there are many things that must be confirmed.' Guatemala Defense Minister Henry Sáenz said none of the Guatemalan soldiers present in La Mesilla fired their weapons and that it remained under investigation. The stretch of the Mexico-Guatemala border has seen near continuous violence in the past two years as the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels battle for control. Last year, the violence spurred hundreds of Mexican residents to flee into Guatemala for safety. At other moments, towns have seen their power cut and cartel convoys parade through their communities. Sunday's shootout was occurring on a narrow street lined with businesses. Opening fire with the machine gun mounted on the Guatemalan military truck in such confines or against Mexican police could have also exacerbated the situation. For Arkel Benitez, a Guatemalan security analyst and lawyer, the problem is that what's visible in the videos circulating is, at best, passivity by Guatemalan police and soldiers and, at worst, collusion in the face of something that was an obvious threat to Guatemalan citizens. 'It's not about whether they followed protocol or not, it's more the doubt generated by a confluence of circumstances that gives the appearance of the (Guatemalan) police not being there to repel a border incursion,' he said. 'In the videos it appears the police are supporting these armed suspects.' ___ Associated Press writers Sara Melini in Guatemala City and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this report. ____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
