Mexican authorities are investigating after a burnt-out truck was discovered in a region near the United States border, containing more than a dozen bodies.
Reuters reported on Sunday that the truck was discovered in an uninhabited part of Tamaulipas, in the northeast of the country. Nineteen bodies in total were discovered. The motive and identity of the victims have yet to be determined.
“Preliminary investigations point to the fact that the cause of death was gunfire and that the bodies were then set on fire,” says the statement from authorities in the region, according to Reuters.
“One of the lines of investigation is that the events could have taken place elsewhere than the discovery,” he continued.
The Tamaulipas area where the truck was discovered is known to be a center for cartel activities and migrant trafficking.
Migrants traveling north in the hope of entering the United States have faced violence in the region for years, partly exacerbated by the so-called “stay in Mexico” policy followed by the Trump administration.
A United Nations project to track migration in Central and South America recorded nearly 500 deaths among migrant populations in the regions close to the U.S.-Mexico border in 2019.