Mexican police killed four gunmen near the Guatemalan border, then pursued more suspects into the neighboring country in three armored police cars, leading to a shootout on the streets of a border town.
Authorities in both countries said they were investigating the incident, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
The rare case of Mexican law enforcement crossing the Guatemalan border on Sunday in La Mesilla was captured by eyewitnesses in videos widely shared online. With the border crossing a short distance away, gunmen in bulletproof vests and carrying rifles can be seen shouting at the open driver's door of an armored Chiapas state police vehicle.
Suddenly, another such vehicle speeds through the border crossing from behind, scattering the gunmen. The first vehicle turns back toward Mexico, and a third armored police vehicle enters from a side street, ramming a civilian car into the side of the other armored police truck. A shootout broke out, with police cars and civilian vehicles being hit by bullets.
All the while, a Guatemalan military truck with a soldier in the turret was in the middle of the melee.
It was the latest outbreak of violence in a stretch of the border that has become a flashpoint as rival Mexican drug cartels and their local affiliates fight for control of valuable smuggling routes for migrants, weapons and drugs, the AP reported.
When asked about the events, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that everything seemed to indicate that Mexican law enforcement officers had entered Guatemala.
"There is an investigation underway and not everything that happened is right," she said.
Chiapas state Governor Eduardo Ramirez Aguilar criticized what he said was is that Guatemalan authorities are protecting members of organized crime. State security chief Oscar Aparicio Avendano told The Associated Press on Monday that police used a drone to spot armed men crossing the border with Mexico.
Police intercepted them and killed four people, including a local gang leader.