At least 19 dead in drug gang clash in Mexico
A cargo truck was found with 16 men shot dead inside, while three others were found dead outside the vehicle, the ministry of public safety said in a statement, after initially giving a death toll of 20.
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MEXICO CITY - At least 19 people were killed, four of them Guatemalans, in a clash between two drug gangs in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, authorities said Monday.
A cargo truck was found with 16 men shot dead inside, while three others were found dead outside the vehicle, the ministry of public safety said in a statement, after initially giving a death toll of 20.
The events occurred on Friday in the municipality of La Concordia, near the border with Guatemala, where violence has been on the rise in recent years.
An initial investigation said the clash was between the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most powerful in Mexico, and another gang identified as the "Chiapas and Guatemala" cartel.
The ministry said in a statement that the two groups were battling over "criminal control of the border area."
The region is key for the trafficking of drugs, arms and migrants toward the United States, according to the non-governmental organization Insight Crime.
Spiralling criminal violence has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since the government of then-president Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against drug cartels in 2006.