4 of the 19 Charred Bodies in Tamaulipas Are Identified

 "MX" for Borderland Beat

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The Guatemalan press states that one of the victims was Marvin Alberto Tomas, nicknamed Lefty, a 22-year-old association football player. Team officials say that poverty forced him to flee Guatemala.

Tamaulipas state authorities confirmed that 4 of the 19 charred bodies found in two burnt vehicles in the municipality of Camargo on January 22 have been identified. Two were Guatemalan and two were Mexican. Investigators say that the current anthropological results determined that 16 of the victims were male and at least one was female. Two more are pending confirmation since their state of decomposition was higher and this has complicated the investigation's accuracy.

The Prosecutor's Office in Tamaulipas confirmed that they cannot reveal the names of the victims who have been identified so far, and thereby refrained to comment if one of the Guatemalan victims was the third-division association footballer Marvin Alberto Tomas, nicknamed El Zurdo (Lefty). The Guatemalan press indicated that the one of the victims was indeed El Zurdo based on accounts from his relatives.

“(El Zurdo) was a talented young man, full of life but above all with a dream of reaching his goals in soccer,” said William Matias, vice president of Juventud Comiteca, the club in Guatemala where El Zurdo played. “However, given the conditions of poverty we live in our country, he had to leave behind his dream to pursue the badly-named American Dream.”

Families of the victims told reporters that this migrant group left Central America on January 11 to head to the United States. However, they said they were gunned down by members of the Northeast Cartel (CDN) and then burned inside the vehicles. The bodies were found on January 22. Investigators say they were shot before they were set on fire.

The vehicle above, a Sequoia, did not have a single bullet impact. The other vehicle found at the scene, a Silverado pick-up truck, had 113.

Tamaulipas state authorities joined efforts with state authorities in Nuevo Leon. Nuevo Leon authorities confirmed that one of the vehicles where the migrants were burned had been located at a safe house where 66 migrants were rescued on December 6. It is unknown how this vehicle ended up in the cartel's hands a second time. 

Sources: El Universal; Milenio; Proceso; WRIC