AP Week in Pictures: Latin America and Caribbean

Sept. 13-19, 2024

Demonstrators in Peru demanded more action from their government to combat fires in the Amazon. Mexicans celebrated Independence Day in the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square. Youths attended a march for religious freedom Rio de Janeiro.

This gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published in the past week by The Associated Press from Latin America and the Caribbean.

The selection was curated by AP photo editor Ramón Espinosa, based in Havana.

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Models, wearing a creation from the Marcos Luengo collection, exit an elevator after performing in Panama Fashion Week in Panama City, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Army cadets carry a Guatemalan flag at the Constitution square during a ceremony kick off celebrations marking Central America's 204 years of independence from Spain, the day before Independence Day in Guatemala City, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Passenger Maria Lujan holds her dog Maximo Decimo as she talks to an airline worker before check-in at the Jorge Newbery airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, during a workers' strike for wage increases that is affecting some flights, but not hers. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A man wearing traditional clothing performs acrobatics on a horse during Independence Day celebrations in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)

Supporters of former President Evo Morales march to the capital with wiphala flags to protest against the government of President Luis Arce in Panduro, Bolivia, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Dutch players celebrate defeating Colombia in a penalty shoot-out of a U-20 Women's World Cup quarterfinal soccer match at Pascual Guerrero Olympic stadium in Cali, Colombia, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Air Force planes fly over the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square, during an Independence Day military parade, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

People carry an empty coffin past a street food vendor into the shop that is buying it to repair and sell in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Youth participate in a Defense of Religious Freedom march at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. The march seeks to bring attention to religious intolerance in the country. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Swedish singer Zara Larsson performs during the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

A demonstrator dressed in a Spiderman costume takes part in a march calling on the government to take stronger action to control fires in the country's Amazon region, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — An 11-year-old Egyptian girl and her 18-year-old sister were among those killed after Mexican army troops opened fire on a truck carrying migrants earlier this week, an official said Friday.

The sisters, and four other migrants from countries including Peru and Honduras, were killed on Tuesday in the southern state of Chiapas.

An official in the state’s prosecutors office confirmed the identification of the two sisters and said their father was wounded in the shooting, but survived.

Federal officials, including newly inaugurated President Claudia Sheinbaum, again refused Friday to confirm the ages or genders of the six migrants killed in the shooting, which occurred on Sheinbaum’s first day in office.

Soldiers claimed they heard shots and returned fire and officials have studiously avoided saying the migrants were killed by army gunfire. However, that appears to be the case, and two soldiers have been relieved of duty and turned over to civilian prosecutors for questioning.

The killings placed in doubt Sheinbaum's statements over her first days in office that human rights will be at the forefront of her administration's policies.

Asked about her immigration policy Friday, Sheinbaum said only that the killings were under investigation and doubled down on earlier claims that the government doesn't violate human rights.

“First of all, human rights are respected,” Sheinbaum said. “That is very important, that is why it is called a humanistic immigration policy, because human rights are at the forefront.”

Three of the dead were from Egypt, and one each from Peru and Honduras. The other has apparently not yet been identified.

Ten other migrants were wounded in the shooting. but there has not been any information on their conditions.

Peru’s foreign ministry confirmed one Peruvian was killed and demanded “an urgent investigation” into the killings. Peru and Mexico have had damaged relations since a 2022 diplomatic spat.

It was the worst killing of migrants by authorities in Mexico since police in the northern state of Tamaulipas killed 17 migrants in 2021.

Sheinbaum has said the shootings are being investigated to see if any commanders might face punishment, and noted “a situation like this cannot be repeated.”

But she left out any mention of that Thursday at a ceremony at a Mexico City army base, where army and navy commanders pledged their loyalty to her in front of massed combat vehicles and hundreds of troops.

“In our country, there is not a state of siege, there are no violations of human rights,” Sheinbaum said, as she promised wage increases for soldiers and sailors.

The shootings Tuesday occurred near the city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala.

The Defense Department initially said that soldiers claimed to have heard shots as a convoy of three trucks passed the soldiers’ position.

The Attorney General’s Office later said all three trucks ignored orders to stop and tried to flee. The soldiers pursued them and reported coming under fire from the convoy, and returned fire.

One of the trucks eventually stopped, the driver reportedly fled, and a total of 33 migrants were found aboard, from the three countries already mentioned, as well as Nepal, Cuba, India and Pakistan.

The Defense Department said four of the migrants were found dead, and 12 wounded. Two of the wounded later died of their injuries. Sheinbaum refused to say whether any weapons were found in the migrants’ truck.

The area is a common route for smuggling migrants, who are often packed into crowded freight trucks. It has also been the scene of drug cartel turf battles, and the department said the trucks “were similar to those used by criminal groups in the region.”

Irineo Mujica, a migrant rights activist, said he doubted the migrants or their smugglers opened fire.

“It is really impossible that these people would have been shooting at the army,” Mujica said. “Most of the time, they get through by paying bribes.”

If the deaths were the result of army fire, as appears likely, it could prove a major embarrassment for Sheinbaum.

The new president has followed the lead of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador in giving the armed forces extraordinary powers in law enforcement, state-run companies , airports, trains and construction projects.

It is not the first time Mexican forces have opened fire on vehicles carrying migrants in the area, which is also the object of cartel turf battles.

In 2021, the quasi-military National Guard opened fire on a pickup truck carrying migrants, killing one and wounding four. The Guard officers initially claimed some of those in the migrants’ truck were armed and had fired shots, but the governmental National Human Rights Commission later found that was not true.

And in 2021, state police in Tamaulipas killed 17 migrants and two Mexican citizens. Those officers also initially claimed to have come under fire from the migrants’ vehicles.

They argued they were responding to shots fired and believed they were chasing the vehicles of one of the country’s drug cartels, which frequently participate in migrant smuggling. But that later turned out to be false, and the police in fact burned the victims’ bodies in an attempt to cover up the crime.

Eleven of the policemen were convicted of homicide and sentenced to over 50 years in prison.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum shakes hands with National Guard officer Itzel Karina Valencia, right, during a troop review alongside Defense Minister Gen. Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, left, at Campo Marte in Mexico City, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)