Thread: Guatemalan Maya families fear migrant relatives are among Mexican massacre victims

GUATEMALA CITY—Guatemalan Maya families said on Monday they feared relatives were among bodies found over the weekend in a remote part of northern Mexico along a route popular with migrant smugglers heading towards the U.S. border.


After receiving a tip off in the border state of Tamaulipas in northern Mexico, Mexican authorities recovered 19 bodies, many of which had gunshot wounds and were badly charred. So far, the dead have not been identified.


Evaristo Agustin was among some 30 indigenous men and women who traveled to the foreign ministry in Guatemala City from distant highland provinces on Monday after word spread their relatives may be among the deceased.


The group provided officials with DNA samples to help with identification.


Agustin was looking for his 22-year-old brother-in-law.


"We heard about it from people already in the United States, family members and neighbors, who said our relatives were part of this group," Agustin said, accompanied by women dressed in traditional yellow, blue and pink woven blouses and woolen skirts.


If confirmed that the victims were migrants, the attack would be among the worst atrocities in recent years against Central Americans in Mexico.


Migration has been on the rise from the region in recent months as families flee the devastation of two severe hurricanes and the economic damage from coronavirus.


The Guatemalan foreign ministry said in a statement it was working with Mexico to determine if any of its citizens were among the victims. Tamaulipas state prosecutor's office said the case was being investigated.


A Twitter account for Guatemala's Congress shared a statement later on Monday saying lawmakers "mourned the tragic death of our migrant brothers from San Marcos," without offering more details.


DNA samples will be compared with samples taken from the bodies by the prosecutor's office in Tamaulipas. The prosecutor's office said the victims included 16 men and a woman. They were unable to determine the gender of two others.


Mario Ernesto Galvez, a Guatemalan lawmaker, said 13 victims were from his mountainous San Marcos province, listing their names in a statement.


"I only feel pain and sadness," said Ramiro Coronado, who feared for his 31-year-old nephew.


"It was the first time he'd tried to travel to the United States to improve his life and that of his family. He's leaving behind a wife and two children."



Guatemalan Maya families fear migrant relatives are among Mexican massacre victims

Mexico is the US's North Korea. Junkyard dog failed state.

Are you unable to link this to Weimar? Oh dear, how sad.

Mexico arrests 12 police in connection with migrant massacre


MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) -Mexican officials have arrested a dozen police officers for suspected involvement in the massacre of 19 people in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas last month, state prosecutors said on Tuesday.


Irving Barrios, attorney general of Tamaulipas, told a news conference investigations showed at least 12 state police were likely involved in the killings in the municipality of Camargo.


A spokesman for state police confirmed the arrests, but declined to comment further, pointing Reuters to the statement made by Barrios.


Authorities have so far identified two Guatemalan migrants among the 19, whose bodies were found badly charred in a bullet-riddled, burnt-out vehicle.


Guatemalan families said they feared more loved ones trying to reach the United States were among the dead.

The massacre caused renewed consternation in Mexico about perils faced by migrants, many of whom suffer abuses on the journey north from impoverished Central American countries.


If the involvement of law enforcement officials is confirmed, the case would echo the abduction and apparent massacre of 43 student teachers in the southwestern city of Iguala in 2014 by corrupt police working with a drug gang.


President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to put an end to killings and kidnappings by authorities, but ties between security forces and organized crime have been hard to stamp out.


The two Guatemalan migrants were identified after their Maya indigenous relatives gave DNA samples to help investigators.


More than a dozen of the victims are believed to be from Guatemala’s highlands, a region hard hit by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and by extreme weather last year.

Also among the dead was the Mexican owner of one of the burnt-out pickup trucks found at the scene, prosecutors said. The truck had been impounded weeks before during the detention of 66 migrants in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon, but was later released to the owner, identified only as Jesus M.


Daniel P., another of the Mexican victims, was a known migrant smuggler, prosecutors said.


The attack took place in a rural area along the busiest stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border for illegal crossings.


Every year tens of thousands of migrants, many from Central America, move through the region under the watch of guides who pay cartels for permission to transit. The lucrative routes are disputed by splinters of the Gulf Cartel and feared Zetas gang.


Investigators believe the victims were part of a larger convoy that included other vehicles carrying migrants, including Salvadorans, and another with armed men aboard apparently for protection.


The detained police appeared to have altered the scene of the crime, removing ammunition casings, prosecutors said. The police report and information the suspects gave in interviews did not match phone records and location data, they added.

Mexico arrests 12 police in connection with migrant massacre | Reuters

Originally Posted by Backspin

Mexico is the US's North Korea. Junkyard dog failed state.

But, but, but . . . you adore the struggle that people have to go through, as opposed to your spoiled upbringing and life . . .

Originally Posted by Switch

Are you unable to link this to Weimar? Oh dear, how sad.

That just shows what a Malthusian-Jacobinite Boomer you are

Originally Posted by Backspin

Mexico is the US's North Korea

Ok . . . how is that?

Originally Posted by misskit

The detained police appeared to have altered the scene of the crime, removing ammunition casings, prosecutors said. The police report and information the suspects gave in interviews did not match phone records and location data, they added.

What chance . . . no chance.