Mexico demands U.S. inquiry into migrant shootings
Source: Reuters
(Adds Arizona governor comments, paragraph 10-11) MEXICO CITY, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Mexico sought a full investigation by U.S. authorities on Friday into a shooting on the U.S. border that left three illegal migrants dead and two injured. Mexico's Foreign Ministry said it had told the Mexican consulate in Tucson, Arizona, to ask local U.S. authorities to probe the attack by unknown gunmen, which took place on a back road often used by migrant traffickers. The ministry requested "an exhaustive investigation" into the incident, it said in a statement. Armed men stopped a bus full of people on the remote desert track near Tucson and began shooting at it, the ministry said. Police say the gunmen may have been bandits. The nationality of the three dead men is still unknown, although the consulate in Tucson has identified the two injured as a Guatemalan woman and a Mexican man. U.S. police officers found two of the dead bodies in a pickup truck in the desert some 20 miles (32-km) from Tucson on Thursday, and the body of a third man on a roadside nearby. U.S.-Mexico relations over their 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border have been tense since U.S. activists who call themselves Minutemen began staking out the border area in 2005 to track down illegal Mexican and Central American immigrants. More than 1 million undocumented immigrants trek over the U.S. border from Mexico each year to search for work in a journey fraught with danger. Last year more than 400 people died making the trip. Most of the fatalities were due to dehydration, drowning or vehicle rollovers, although attacks, rapes and robberies are common in the borderlands. Arizona's Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano said the incident underscored the need for U.S. immigration reform. "Without immigration reform and a commitment by both countries to have a strong and secure border that facilitates the lawful trade and commerce that must go on between us, we will have incidents like this," she told reporters in Mexico City, where she was visiting President Felipe Calderon. (Additional reporting by Gunther Hamm)
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