Mexico City, Sep 7 (EFE).- The government has identified seven of the individuals involved in the massacre last month of 72 migrants at a ranch in northeastern Mexico, security spokesman Alejandro Poire said.

The bodies of three men found on Aug. 30 were later identified by one of the massacre survivors as being those of the group that killed the Latin American migrants, Poire said.

A young man was arrested in connection with the killings and three of the suspected gunmen died in a shootout with marines on Aug. 24, the security spokesman said.

Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, an 18-year-old Ecuadorian, notified Mexican marines of the massacre at a ranch near San Fernando, a town in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, and told officials that the migrants were kidnapped by armed men before they reached the U.S. border.

Mexican marines found the bodies of the 58 men and 14 women after a shootout with gunmen at the ranch that left a marine and three criminals dead.

"We have a Mexican in preventive custody who was identified by the survivors ... the dead bodies of three men and two women were also located, (and) the men were identified by the Honduran survivor as responsible" for the killing, Poire said.

The three bodies found on Aug. 30 had been dumped on a road in Abasolo, a town in Tamaulipas, and were identified by the Honduran as those of gunmen involved in the killings.

An anonymous caller told authorities where the bodies were and that the men helped carry out the massacre, Poire said.

Drug cartels regularly call in the locations of gunmen and bodies to the authorities in an effort to cause harm to rival gangs.

The two dead women have not been identified, Poire said.

The evidence gathered so far indicates that the Aug. 22 massacre was carried out by members of the notorious Zetas drug cartel, as the Ecuadorian survivor told authorities, Attorney General's Office spokesman Ricardo Najera said.

Investigators are working on the theory that the kidnapped migrants were killed after they refused to become hired guns for the cartel, officials said.

The dead immigrants were from Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Brazil.

A total of 27 bodies have been identified, with the remains of 16 of the victims repatriated to Honduras and 11 to El Salvador.

Lala Pomavilla was the first massacre survivor identified, and the Mexican government confirmed last Wednesday that a Honduran also survived.

Over the weekend, El Salvador's president, Mauricio Funes, said that a Salvadoran survived the massacre, making him the third survivor identified.

Lala Pomavilla's information indicated that three people from the original group of 77 migrants were missing.

Of the eyewitnesses, Lala Pomavilla is back home in Ecuador and the Honduran is under government protection in Mexico, Poire said.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the Salvadoran, who is reportedly in the United States, is really a massacre survivor, Poire said.

After several years as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.