Many in Mexico were reeling on Sunday from revelations that a shooting that killed 20 people in the border town of El Paso, Texas, appears to have been aimed at Hispanics — and Mexicans in particular.
Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard labeled the shooting “an act of terrorism” against Mexicans and urged the US to establish a “clear and convincing position against hate crimes.”
Six Mexicans were killed and another seven of the country’s citizens were among the dozens wounded, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday.
“Mexico is outraged,” Ebrard said, calling the shooting an “act of barbarism.”
Just minutes before the rampage, US investigators believe that the shooter posted a rambling online manifesto in which he railed against a perceived “invasion” of Hispanics coming into the US.
The gunman then allegedly targeted a shopping area in El Paso that is about 8km from the main border checkpoint with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Tens of thousands of Mexicans cross the border legally each day to work and shop in the city of 680,000 full-time residents, and El Paso County is more than 80 percent Latino, according to the latest census data.
“In spite of the pain, the outrage” that Mexicans are feeling, Lopez Obrador said, the US is headed toward elections and Mexico does not want to interfere in the “internal affairs” of other countries.
He also said that the events in Texas reaffirmed his conviction that “social problems shouldn’t be confronted with the use of force and by inciting hate.”
Amatza Gutierrez, a student from the Mexican capital, said that the idea of a shooter targeting Mexicans because of their ethnicity gives her goose bumps.
“I don’t understand why anyone would go to that extreme,” the 24-year-old said.
Her friend, Carlos Franco, who recently graduated from college with a degree in international business, said that the shooting has made him not want to travel to the US anymore.
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