Mexican authorities of the state of Tamaulipas announced this Tuesday night that they had arrested 12 state police officers for their probable participation in the massacre of 19 people, most of them migrants, who were found inside a burned vehicle in the municipality of Camargo.
The Tamaulipas attorney general, Irving Barrios Mojica, said at a press conference that the agents would soon be brought before a judge, where they would face the crimes of
qualified homicide, abuse of authority, poor performance of administrative functions and false reports
presented before a authority.
"These arrest warrants have already been completed and in the next few hours the police will be placed at the disposal of the judicial authority and it will be responsible for resolving their legal situation," said Barrios Mojica.
About 13 Guatemalan migrants die burned in a van in Mexico
Jan. 26, 202 102: 00
The Tamaulipas Attorney General's Office has said that most of the victims were
Guatemalan migrants from the communities of Comitancillos and San Marcos
.
Of the four human remains whose identity has been confirmed by genetic tests, two correspond to Mexican nationals and two to Guatemalan citizens.
Authorities believe that the two Mexicans, originally from the states of Nuevo León and San Luis Potosí, were engaged in human trafficking.
Regarding the human remains located, the prosecution reported that, in a preliminary way and subject to the anthropological result, it was determined that 16 correspond to the male sex, one to the female sex and two pending clarification due to the high degree of calcination.
[A small village in Guatemala mourns the massacre of 13 migrants in Tamaulipas, Mexico]
On January 22,
an anonymous call alerted local authorities to two abandoned and burned trucks
on a local road in the municipality of Camargo, where the 19 burned bodies were.
Of the two vehicles found, one of them, a Toyota pickup, Sequoia model, 2008, had 113 gunshot wounds, while the other, a Chevrolet, Silverado, pickup, cab and a half, had none.
The Toyota truck was claimed from the crime scene by Jesús M., the Mexican from Nuevo León whose body was identified by the prosecution on Tuesday.
Relatives and friends of Guatemalan migrants who were passing through Mexico on their way to the United States pray for fear that they are among the charred bodies of 19 people who were found in Tamaulipas on January 22.
Barrios Mojica confirmed that the Toyota truck had previously been intercepted by the Municipal Police of the municipality of Escobedo, Tamaulipas,
and members of the National Migration Institute
on December 6, when the authorities rescued 66 migrant victims of human trafficking.
The prosecutor did not specify if federal immigration agents were involved in any way in the events of January 22, nor did he elaborate on how the truck was used again by migrant smugglers to transport people.
[Grief in Guatemala for the massacre of migrants in Mexico: "His dream was to reach the United States"]
However, authorities suspect that the massacre was the product of a
dispute between organized crime groups
that seek to control drug trafficking routes and the transfer of migrants.
The prosecution added that it is very likely that more vehicles were involved in which Guatemalan and Salvadoran migrants who intended to reach the United States were traveling, as well as "armed subjects who gave them protection and security."
With information from Efe.