Mexican authorities are investigating after a burnt truck was discovered in a region near the US border that contained more than a dozen bodies.
Reuters reported on Sunday that the truck was discovered in a largely uninhabited part of Tamaulipas in the northeast of the country. A total of 19 bodies were discovered. A reason and the identity of the victims have not yet been established.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that the cause of death was gunfire and that the bodies were then set on fire,” the region said in a statement.
“One of the lines of investigation is that the events could have happened in a different place than the discovery,” he continued.
The area of Tamaulipas where the truck was discovered is known as a hot spot for cartel activities and migrant trafficking.
Migrants traveling north in hopes of entering the United States have faced violence in the region for years, exacerbated in part by the so-called “stay in Mexico” policy pursued by the Trump administration.
A United Nations migration tracking project in Central and South America recorded nearly 500 deaths among migrant populations in regions near the US-Mexico border in 2019.