Three Mexican National Guard troops are dead following a bizarre incident near the U.S. Consulate in Juárez.
Two others were injured when their military truck slammed into a security camera pole on the Avenida Ejército Nacional.
There are two versions of the fatal incident that occurred on Tuesday, March 18, according to published news reports.
The first version suggests that the weapon of the soldier riding in the bed of the pickup truck misfired as he loaded it after seeing a suspicious car. The round struck the driver in the head causing the truck to careen off the road and strike the metal pole, according to the Juárez media Norte Digital.
A Chihuahua State Police Investigator takes a photo of the top of the truck of the Mexican National Guard truck that crashed on Ejercito Nacional Avenue in Juárez, killing three troops and injuring two others on March 18, 2025. The accident occurred after a soldier traveling on the back of the truck accidentally discharged his weapon striking the driver in the head, causing the unit to crash.
The second theory is that the occupants of a red pickup truck that was in the area shot at the National Guard troops causing the driver to crash into the pole.
The troops involved in the incident were part of the 31 Battalion, which is based in Juárez. It is currently unclear if they were part of the Mexican president’s deployment of troops to target border security in cooperation with President Donald Trump.
There is no official statement on the incident.
Troops on the border
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum deployed 10,000 National Guard troops to the border as part of “Operación Frontera Norte” in February to assist in combating human trafficking networks and drug trafficking.
A Mexican National Guard soldier keeps guard at the site where three of his fellow troops lost their lives after an accidental discharge killed the driver of the unit causing it to crash killing two other troops and injuring two others on March 18, 2025.
The deployment was part of an agreement with the Trump administration to avoid the implementation of 25% tariffs on products exported from Mexico. The government of Mexico requested that the U.S. stop the illegal flow of weapons across the border.
Source: El Diario
