Mexican authorities are reportedly investigating after a burnt-out truck was discovered in a region near the US border with 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. In all, nineteen bodies were discovered. A motive and the identity of the victims have not yet been established.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that the cause of death was the firearms shots and the bodies were subsequently set on fire,” Reuters said in a statement by authorities in the region.
“One line of inquiry is that the events could have happened in a different place from that of the discovery,” it continued.
The area of Tamaulipas where the truck was discovered is known as a hotspot for cartel activity and migrant trafficking.
Migrants traveling north in hopes of entering the US have faced violence in the region for years, exacerbated in part by the Trump administration’s so-called “stay in Mexico” policy.
A United Nations project tracking migration in Central and South America recorded nearly 500 deaths among migrant populations in regions near the US-Mexico border in 2019.