Mexican President Says Fight Against Drug and Migrant Trafficking Behind Massacre of 19 People

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's president said Tuesday that a fight between gangs over drug and migrant trafficking routes was behind the massacre of 19 men in the southern state of Chiapas.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the killings were part of a long-running conflict between two drug cartels.

“There are two groups fighting there, it's been like this for a while,” López Obrador said. “What's the motive? Drug trafficking, and also migrant trafficking… there's a road that leads here.”

He confirmed that there were several Guatemalans among the victims, but did not specify whether they were fighting for one side or the other in the territorial battles.

López Obrador said federal forces were “protecting the population” of Chiapas, despite the region having been the scene of several massacres in recent months.

On Monday, authorities discovered 19 bodies piled in and around a dump truck in a cartel-dominated town near the border with Guatemala.

The men's bodies were found in an abandoned truck 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 in the cab, two just outside the truck and another body was found about 100 meters away.

The victims were shot and included at least six men carrying Guatemalan identity documents.

The Ministry of Public Security said the killings appear to be linked to bloody territorial battles between the Sinaloa drug cartel and a rival gang known as the Mexico-Guatemala Cartel. The latter gang may have ties to Sinaloa's rival, the Jalisco cartel.

As migrant and drug trafficking has become more lucrative in the region, cartels have been battling for control of smuggling routes for the past year.

Rising violence in the state of Chiapas has forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

In May, a mayoral candidate and five others were killed when gunmen opened fire at a campaign rally in La Concordia, about 125 km from the border with Guatemala.

Among the six people shot dead were a young girl and mayoral candidate Lucero López Maza. Two other people were injured and the motive for the attack remains unknown.

The shooting came just days after 11 people were killed in mass shootings in a village in the municipality of Chicomuselo, Chiapas, a few dozen kilometers from La Concordia.

The Associated Press