Indigenous woman shot and killed by U.S. Border Patrol agent

Wednesday, May 30, 2018  

A young indigenous woman from Guatemala was shot and killed by an agent from the U.S. Border Patrol last week.

Claudia Patricia Gómez González, 19, had crossed from Mexico into the U.S. near Rio Bravo, Texas, when she was killed on May 23, the agency said in a statement. It described the Mam woman as being in a group of "assailants" who allegedly attacked the "lone" agent using "blunt objects."

But the agency later updated the original statement about the incident, according to news accounts. It no longer used the word "assailants" and instead said the group "rushed" toward the agent who shot Gómez.

The updated statement, issued on May 25, has not yet been posted on the agency's newsroom page as of Tuesday morning.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala confirmed Gómez's death on Friday. The government said the young woman was from the San Juan Ostuncalco municipality, an area where Mam, a Maya language, is commonly spoken.

“She left home 15 days ago, saying: ‘Mamita, we’re going to go on ahead, I’ll make money. There’s no work here,’” Lidia González Vásquez., Gómez's mother, told Guatevisión in an interview “But shamefully they killed her. The migration killed her.”

Read More on the Story:
Border Patrol changes its account of shooting that killed woman in Texas (CBS / The Associated Press May 29, 2018)
She came to the US for a better life. Moments after arrival, she was killed (CNN May 29, 2018)
Border Patrol changes account of migrant woman's killing as her family reels (NBC News May 27, 2018)
‘Don’t Treat Us Like Animals’: Family of Woman Shot by Border Patrol Denounces U.S. (The New York Times May 26, 2018)
'Immigration killed her': Guatemalan woman shot dead by US Border Patrol (The Guardian May 25, 2018)
Border Patrol Agent Kills Woman Who Crossed Into Texas Illegally, Authorities Say (The New York Times May 24, 2018)

An Opinion:
Daniel Altschuler and Natalia Aristizabal: Claudia Gómez González Wasn’t Killed by a Rogue Border Agent—She Was Killed by a Rogue Agency (The Nation May 29, 2018)