Mexican officials have arrested 12 police officers for allegedly killing 19 people, including Guatemalan migrants, near the U.S. border late last month.
On Jan. 22, 19 people were found shot and burned in a pickup truck in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, just south of Texas.
"At least 12 state police participated," in the massacre, according to Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios, who announced the officers' arrest on charges of homicide, abuse of authority and making false statements during a press conference Tuesday night.
He added while truck where the bodies were found had been hit by 113 bullets, an absence of spent shell casings at the scene pointed to tampering with evidence.
Four victims have been identified — including two Guatemalan migrants and two Mexicans — one of whom was a known migrant smuggler, Barrios said. The other Mexican man owned the burned truck where the bodies were found, which had recently been impounded as part of a smuggling operation.
Many of the remaining 15 massacre victims are believed to be Guatemalans whose loved ones lost contact with them the day before the bodies were found. The families have said 13 people from their rural community — including 10 men and three women — were traveling to the United States, fleeing the impacts of Hurricanes and the pandemic. But they had not heard from them or been able to get in touch since around Jan. 21. The families have provided about 30 DNA samples to help identify their loved ones among the victims.
The killings could have been part of a drug cartel dispute over territory and the right to charge smugglers for transporting migrants through the area, Barrios said.
The case has raised alarm over the dangers migrants face and the role Mexican security forces play in such crimes.
