Dozens of Central Americans die in a Mexico truck crash.
At least 53 individuals, most of whom were Central American migrants and refugees, died when the truck they were traveling in collapsed in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, officials said, in one of the country’s worst road accidents in recent years.
According to Luis Manuel Garcia, chief of the Chiapas Civil Protection Department, the accident occurred on Thursday when a huge truck toppled on a treacherous bend outside of Tuxtla Gutierrez.
As dozens of Central Americans die in Mexico truck crash, according to local officials, at than 100 individuals were inside, while the number could have been as high as 200, with rumours that some of the bloodied passengers left the scene for fear of being apprehended by immigration officials.
Many of the injured battled to free themselves from the toppled container’s pile of people.
Images from the news agency showed individuals being treated on tarps on the ground. Rows of what seemed to be accident victims’ bodies wrapped in white cloths were also visible in images of the collision site.
“It took a bend, and because of the weight of us people inside, we all went with it,” said a shocked-looking Guatemalan man sitting at the scene in footage broadcast on social media.
“The trailer couldn’t handle the weight of people.”
The driver appeared to be speeding when he lost control of the vehicle, according to officials. Men, women, and children were among those killed, according to officials.
According to officials, at least 54 individuals were injured and brought to local hospitals, with three of them in critical condition.
Hundreds of individuals from Guatemala, which borders Mexico, were among the injured, according to a preliminary report.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei wrote on Twitter: “I deeply regret the tragedy in Chiapas state, and I express my solidarity for the victims’ families, to whom we will offer all the necessary consular assistance, including repatriation.”
Meanwhile, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador described the situation as “extremely distressing,” and El Salvador’s foreign minister, Alexandra Hill, said her country was investigating whether Salvadorans were killed in the crash.
Migrants and refugees fleeing poverty and violence in Central America often travel via Mexico to reach the US border, paying thousands of dollars to cram onto enormous trucks organized by traffickers in risky conditions.
Authorities in Tamaulipas, Mexico’s northern border state, discovered 652 migrants, mostly from Central America, crammed into a convoy of six cargo trucks headed for the US border in October.
Irineo Mujica, a human rights activist spearheading a march of around 400 migrants across southern Mexico, blamed Thursday’s calamity on Mexico’s crackdown on migrants, which comes amid US pressure to curb the flow of people trying to reach the US-Mexico border.
“These policies that kill us, that murder us, is what leads to this type of tragedy,” Mujica told the news agency.
The incident resulted in one of the highest single-day death tolls for migrants and refugees in Mexico since the Zetas drug cartel massacred 72 people in the northern state of Tamaulipas in 2010.
The National Immigration Institute of Mexico said that the survivors would be granted humanitarian visas. The Mexican government would also assist in identifying the deceased and cover funeral fees or repatriation of their remains, according to the agency.
Rutilio Escandon, the governor of the state, conveyed his condolences to the victims. He stated on social media, “I have given instructions for the injured to receive timely attention and help.”
“Law enforcement will determine who is responsible,” he said.
