The bodies — some of them badly burned —
were found Wednesday in the border town of Miguel Aleman, about 170
miles (270 kilometers) from McAllen, Texas, the city Trump was due to
visit as he continues his push to build his long-sought border wall.

“We have reports there was a shootout
yesterday (Wednesday) between two criminal groups that ended with 21
people dead,” the security spokesman for the state of Tamaulipas, Luis
Alberto Rodriguez, told Mexican TV news channel Milenio.

“Some of them were burned. Seven
vehicles were also located… It was a confrontation between two rival
groups that are involved in a turf war over drug-trafficking routes.”

The Mexican army found the bodies in a remote area following a tip-off, he said.

Tamaulipas has become one of the most violent
states in Mexico as rival drug cartels fight each other for its
strategic position on the US border.

Mexico has been racked by drug-related
violence in recent years — something Trump has alluded to in arguing
his wall is needed to keep out violent criminals and narcotics.

McAllen, where he was meeting with border
patrol agents, sits across from Tamaulipas. The US State Department has
issued its most severe travel warning for the state because of violent
crime, classifying it alongside countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

More than 200,000 people have been
murdered in Mexico since the government deployed the army to fight the
country’s powerful drug cartels in 2006, including a record 28,711 in
2017.

Preliminary figures indicate the homicide record was broken again in 2018.