Investigators say the clash took place between the powerful Sinaloa cartel and another gang identified as “Chiapas and Guatemala.”

Authorities said dozens of bodies found in a truck in Mexico were linked to a brutal turf battle between rival gangs.

At least 19 bodies were discovered in or around a dump truck in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, officials said Tuesday, as a recent surge in gang violence linked to drug and migrant trafficking has plagued the region.

The Public Security Ministry said the men’s bodies were found Monday in a dump truck abandoned on a rural road near the town of La Concordia.

Authorities said the victims were shot dead. At least six of them were men with Guatemalan identification.

The events that led to the gruesome discovery are believed to have occurred on Friday near the Guatemalan border, where violence has escalated in recent years.

Initial investigations showed that the conflict was between the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful in Mexico, and another gang known as the Chiapas and Guatemala Cartel.

The ministry said in a statement that both groups were fighting for “criminal control of the border area.”

According to the NGO Insight Crime, the Chiapas region plays a key role in the smuggling of drugs, weapons and migrants to the United States.

The recent upsurge in violence has forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

It also forced the government to send an additional 1,200 troops to reinforce the country’s southern border with Guatemala.

Rising criminal violence has led to more than 450,000 people being murdered in Mexico since then-President Felipe Calderon’s government launched a military offensive against drug cartels in 2006.

During this year’s presidential campaign, Claudia Sheinbaum — who was elected in June and will replace Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in October — was briefly stopped by masked men who stopped her vehicle. She was not injured in the incident.

Voting was suspended in two municipalities in the state of Chiapas due to a spike in violence that prevented polling stations from opening.