MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Tuesday that a fight between gangs over drug and migrant smuggling routes was to blame for the killings of 19 men in the southern state of Chiapas.
President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said the killings were part of a long-standing conflict between two drug cartels.
“There are two groups that are in conflict there, and it’s been that way for a while,” López Obrador said. “What’s the motive? Drug trafficking, and also migrant trafficking … there’s a route there.”
He confirmed that several Guatemalans were among the victims, but did not say whether they were fighting on one side or the other in the territorial battles.
López Obrador said federal forces were “protecting” the people of Chiapas despite several mass killings taking place in the area in recent months.
On Monday, authorities found 19 bodies piled in and around a garbage truck in a drug-cartel-dominated town near the Guatemalan border.
The men’s bodies were found in a truck that had been abandoned on a rural road near the town of La Concordia, Chiapas. The bodies of fourteen men were piled in the bed of the dump truck, two others were found in the cab, two were just outside the truck and another body was found about 100 yards (meters) away.
The victims were shot dead. Among them were at least six men who were carrying Guatemalan identity papers.
The Department of Public Safety said the killings appear to be linked to bloody fighting between the Sinaloa drug cartel and a rival gang known as the Mexico-Guatemala Cartel, which may have ties to Sinaloa’s archrival, the Jalisco Cartel.
As human smuggling and drug trafficking have become increasingly lucrative in the area, cartels have been fighting for control of smuggling routes in the past year.
The increase in violence in the state of Chiapas has forced thousands of people to flee.
In May, a mayoral candidate and five other people were killed when gunmen opened fire at a campaign rally in La Concordia, about 125 kilometers (78 miles) from the Guatemalan border.
A young girl was among six people killed in the shooting, along with mayoral candidate Lucero López Maza. Two others were wounded and the motive for the attack remains unclear.
The shooting came just days after 11 people were killed in mass shootings in a town in the Chicomuselo municipality, Chiapas, a few dozen kilometers from La Concordia.
