Mexico City, January 13 (RHC)--  Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged Sunday that those behind a massacre that killed nine members of a U.S.-Mexican family of Mormon origin will be punished and that the truth surrounding the crime will eventually come out.

In a speech before extended family members near the U.S. border, Lopez Obrador also promised to keep relatives appraised of the investigation into the ambush carried out by cartel gunmen two months ago.  “There will be justice,” he declared, addressing the small crowd from an outdoor stage set against the rugged mountains that surround the town of La Mora, home to the victims.

Back on November 5, 2019, gunmen killed nine members of a U.S. Mormon family, three mothers and six children when their vehicles came under heavy gunfire then were torched.  The victims belonged to the LeBaron family from a breakaway Mormon community that settled in the hills and plains of northern Mexico decades ago.

Security experts say evidence gathered so far suggests the massacre was carried out by the Juarez faction known as La Linea and may have been a case of mistaken identity.  Lopez Obrador said the investigation was making progress but did not give details.

Earlier in the day, the Mexican leader met privately with relatives of the victims for about an hour, after traveling nearly four hours by car to the town.  La Mora, like other northern Mexican settlements where relatives of the large families live, was founded decades ago by breakaway Mormon leaders who fled the United States seeking a safe haven for their polygamist beliefs.