(CNN Español) – Two Guatemalans and two Mexicans are among 19 people whose charred bodies were found last week in a rural area of Santa Anita in the municipality of Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, according to initial identifications of reported victims.
In a statement, the Attorney General of Tamaulipas said this Saturday that “four victims have been genetically identified, with the information from the families, two of them Mexican and two Guatemalan.”
The public prosecutor’s office did not name the fatalities.
The same statement indicates that of the remains of the 19 deceased, it was found that “16 correspond to the male sex, one to the female sex and two awaiting clarification due to the high degree of calcination.”
The prosecutor also reported that of the two vehicles that caught fire along with the bodies on January 22, the pickup truck where the charred remains were found had 113 gunshot wounds.
The other car, also a truck, “was located where 66 foreigners were rescued on December 6 by elements of the municipal police of the municipality of Escobedo, of that state (Nuevo León), and the National Institute of Migration”.
Research in Mexico and Guatemala
The identification of the bodies by the Mexican authorities comes days after residents of the Comitancillo Municipality, in Guatemala, denounced that they had lost contact with at least 13 of its residents who left to immigrate illegally to the United States and that they feared they were among the victims discovered in Tamaulipas.
Since the discovery of the bodies was announced, authorities in Mexico and Guatemala have said they would work together to identify the victims.
Last Friday, Guatemala’s Deputy Secretary of State Eduardo Hernández told CNN that the Guatemalan government was unsure about what had happened to the group of migrants from Comitancillo going to the United States via Mexico, or that some of these people did. would do. be part of the 19 bodies burned in Tamaulipas.
The diplomat added that the country was gathering the necessary information to identify the whereabouts of its nationals.
Until this Saturday, the Tamaulipas prosecutor’s office had made no mention of a possible motive behind the event. It also did not report any arrests of alleged perpetrators.
In this Saturday’s statement, the institution indicated that “it continues the investigation and reaffirms its commitment to clarifying the facts, finding those likely to be responsible, accusing them and reaffirming its actions against human rights violations. . ”