Mexico's foreign minister on Monday called the mass shooting at a Texas Walmart that claimed the lives of eight Mexican nationals an act of terrorism against its citizens on US soil and vowed to take legal action.
Marcelo Ebrard said the Mexican government will "definitely" launch legal action against the selling and distribution of assault rifles in the US, like the one used by the shooter in Saturday's attack. It remained unclear exactly what type of legal action the Mexican government was planning.
"We consider this an act of terror. In this case it was in US territory but it was terrorism against Mexicans," said Ebrard at a press conference in El Paso. "Mexico is outraged."
In addition to the eight Mexicans who were killed as a result of Saturday's attack, six Mexican nationals were injured. In total, 22 people were killed in the shooting.
Ebrard told reporters Mexico will be participating in the shooting investigation and that he planned on meeting with Mexico's attorney general on Tuesday to share information he has received from US authorities. The attorney general will ultimately decide whether the suspected shooter should also be extradited to Mexico and prosecuted for the killings of eight of its citizens.
The suspected shooter wrote in a manifesto before the attack that the massacre was in response to a "Hispanic invasion" of Texas and that taking in more immigrants was detrimental to the US.
On Monday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as AMLO, also called for gun control in the US and said guns should not be easily purchased at stores.
"We want a respectful relationship with the US government and to say that we lament the loss of human lives in that country,” said AMLO at a press conference. "It hurts about our dead, but it also hurts that human beings of other nationalities lost their lives."