Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has asked the United States to provide evidence for a claim that shots were fired from the Mexican side of the border towards U.S. Coast Guard personnel.
U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson made the allegation on Sunday concerning an area where Mexico’s Tamaulipas state meets Texas. Sheinbaum said on Monday that Mexico’s National Guard, Army and Navy had detected no such gunfire. Her statement challenges the account; it does not, by itself, establish what happened.
“We asked for all the evidence because we have no evidence,” Sheinbaum said at her daily news conference, according to Reuters. No evidence supporting the ambassador’s account had been made public in the reporting reviewed.
Security deployment along the border
Mexico has deployed 500 Army and National Guard personnel in Tamaulipas, supported by helicopters, drones and equipment designed to counter drones. Its defence ministry said the operation was intended to help prevent drug trafficking and unauthorised border crossings, according to El País.
Sheinbaum described the patrols as a precaution while the two governments clarify the allegation. Similar coordinated patrols, with each country’s forces remaining on its own side of the border, were already part of their security cooperation before this dispute.
The central question remains whether shots were fired, and if so, where they came from. Until evidence is presented, Trivane cannot report a cross-border attack as fact.
