19 People, Including Migrants, Executed and Burned in Tamaulipas

"Buggs" for Borderland Beat

The charred bodies of 19 people, sixteen of them Central American citizens, were found in various vehicles in the town of Santa Anita, in the municipality of Camargo, Tamaulipas. In a statement, the Tamaulipas Attorney General's Office specified that it had already opened an investigation for the homicides of the burned bodies and vehicles.

It is said that on the afternoon of January 23, authorities from the Ministry of Public Security were alerted by a citizen of a report that a vehicle was on fire in a field in the town of Santa Anita.

Elements of the state police mobilized to the location, where they found two burned vehicles, as well as the burned remains of people.

In one of the vans they located two bodies inside the cabin, another body to one side of the door on the driver's side, one more to the side of the passenger door and 15 inside in another vehicle.

Investigating police officers and forensic experts were processing the scene, as well as to collect evidence that would reveal the way in which the events unfolded.

From the preliminary investigations it was established that death was more likely caused by gunfire and were set on fire afterward.

The Prosecutor's Office said that through their inspections, no casings were found at the scene, which may indicate that the people were most likely executed in another location and set on fife at this location.

Anonymous sources in Camargo provided some information that might shed some light as to what might had happened. Unknown sources said that a group of gunmen from the Northeast Cartel (CDN), which is the former group of Los Zetas, abducted 19 people that might have been trying to reach the US border and took them to a house in the town of Santa Anita, whom they executed in that house and then dumped their bodies in the state line of neighboring Nuevo León, where they were set on fire. The CDN is a criminal group that is known to be active in the region.