MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Mexico is investigating whether officials were involved in the alleged massacre of 19 people in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas after a truck was allegedly seized by immigration authorities before the murders were found at the scene of the crime.
“We are going to see if there is any responsibility on the part of officials or officials at the National Migration Institute itself,” Mexican Interior Minister Olga Sanchez said Monday.
Prosecutors have so far genetically identified two Guatemalans and two Mexicans among the 19 victims whose bodies were heavily charred.
Some Guatemalan families have said they feared loved ones trying to migrate to the United States were among those killed in Tamaulipas.
A truck found at the scene of the crime had been seized by immigration authorities in neighboring Nuevo Leon state in December, local media reported.
Nuevo Leon’s immigration institute did not respond to requests for comment about the seizure of the truck. The Nuevo Leon prosecutor’s office referred Reuters to the Tamaulipas prosecutor’s office, which said Saturday that the truck was at the scene of a “rescue” of 66 foreigners by local police and immigration authorities in December. The office said on Monday it could not confirm the subsequent seizure of the truck by immigration.
Sanchez said the federal government was aware of the truck and the fact that it may have been in the possession of immigration authorities, but said the matter was still under investigation.
The murders have sparked new consternation in Mexico about the dangers facing migrants, many of whom come from the three violent and impoverished Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
(Report by Laura Gottesdiener and Adriana Barrera, written by Laura Gottesdiener; edited by Steve Orlofsky)
Originally published