1 migrant killed and 8 wounded in a shooting in Mexico south of the Arizona border
MEXICO CITY (AP) — One migrant was killed and eight were wounded when unidentified assailants in northern Mexico opened fire on the vehicle they were traveling in, officials said Monday.
The dead migrant was a boy from southern Mexico, and the wounded included Mexicans and people from Ecuador and Africa, officials said.
Prosecutors in the northern state of Sonora said the attack took place Sunday in a township called Tubutama, about 47 miles (75 kilometers) south of Sasabe, on the Arizona border.
No motive was given in the attack, but the area has been hit by violence between competing gangs of migrant smugglers allied with warring drug cartels.
Cartels in Mexico frequently demand money from smugglers moving migrants through their territories, and will sometimes attack migrants if those payments aren’t made.