53 dead after truck smuggling migrants crashes in Mexico

2 years ago 259

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ – Rescue workers rushing to a road mishap recovered a horrific country of decease and wounded aft a freight motortruck jammed with arsenic galore arsenic 200 migrants tipped implicit and crashed into the basal of a alloy pedestrian span successful confederate Mexico.

The migrants wrong the cargo trailer were tossed and crushed successful a heap of some the surviving and the dead.

By precocious Thursday, the decease toll stood astatine 53, and authorities said astatine slightest 54 radical had been injured. It was 1 of the worst single-day decease tolls for migrants successful Mexico since the 2010 massacre of 72 migrants by the Zetas cause cartel successful the bluish authorities of Tamaulipas.

Volunteer rescuers hauled bodies disconnected the heap by their arms and legs, portion immoderate migrants scrambled to extract themselves from the twisted alloy sheets of the collapsed container.

One young man, pinned successful a heap of unmoving bodies, wriggled to escaped the little fractional of his frame, his look wrenched into a grimace arsenic helium extracted himself from the value of the dead.

Nearby, a antheral blinked his eyes, incapable to determination arsenic helium laic connected the enarthrosis of the road. Next to him was a chap migrant, stouter and older, whose eyes stared lifeless and unblinking into the mounting sun.

While the Mexican authorities is trying to appease the United States by stopping caravans of walking migrants and allowing the reinstatement of the “Remain successful Mexico” policy, it hasn’t been capable to halt the flood of migrants stuffed hundreds astatine a clip into freight trucks operated by smugglers who complaint thousands of dollars to instrumentality them to the U.S. borderline — trips that each excessively often pb them lone to their deaths.

The astir severely injured, galore bloodied, were carried by their arms and legs to integrative sheets acceptable connected the road. Those who could locomotion were led, stunned and uncomprehending, to the aforesaid sheets. Ambulances, cars and pickup trucks were pressed into service, ferrying the injured to hospitals.

Later, the dormant were laid successful rows of achromatic sheets, broadside by side, connected the highway.

Rescue workers who archetypal arrived said that adjacent much migrants had been aboard the motortruck erstwhile it crashed and had fled for fearfulness of being detained by migration agents. One paramedic said immoderate of those who hurried into surrounding neighborhoods were bloodied oregon bruised, but inactive limped distant successful their desperation to escape.

About 200 migrants whitethorn person been packed into the truck, said Guatemala’s apical quality rights official, Jordán Rodas. While shocking, that fig is not antithetic for migrant smuggling operations successful Mexico, and the value of the load — combined with velocity and a adjacent curve — whitethorn person been capable to propulsion the motortruck disconnected balance, authorities said.

Luis Manuel Moreno, caput of the Chiapas authorities civilian defence office, said astir 21 of the injured had superior wounds and were taken to section hospitals. The national Attorney General’s Office said 3 were critically injured successful the clang connected a road starring from the Guatemalan borderline toward the Chiapas authorities capital.

Sitting connected the pavement beside the overturned trailer, subsister Celso Pacheco of Guatemala said the motortruck felt similar it was speeding and past seemed to suffer control.

Pacheco said determination were migrants mostly from Guatemala and Honduras aboard and estimated determination were 8 to 10 young children. He said helium was trying to scope the United States, but present expected to beryllium deported to Guatemala.

Marco Antonio Sánchez, manager of the Chiapas Firefighter Institute, said ambulances raced victims to 3 hospitals, carrying 3 to 4 injured each. When determination weren’t capable ambulances, they loaded them into pickup trucks, helium said.

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei wrote connected Twitter: “I profoundly regret the calamity successful Chiapas state, and I explicit my solidarity for the victims’ families, to whom we volition connection each the indispensable consular assistance, including repatriation.”

The motortruck had primitively been a closed freight module of the benignant utilized to transport perishable goods. The instrumentality was smashed unfastened by the unit of the impact. It was unclear if the operator survived.

Those who spoke to survivors said the migrants told of boarding the motortruck successful Mexico, adjacent the borderline with Guatemala, and of paying betwixt $2,500 and $3,500 to beryllium taken to Mexico’s cardinal authorities of Puebla. Once there, they would presumably person contracted with different acceptable of smugglers to instrumentality them to the U.S. border.

In caller months, Mexican authorities person tried to artifact migrants from walking successful ample groups toward the U.S. border, but the clandestine and illicit travel of smuggling has continued.

In October, successful 1 of the largest busts successful caller memory, authorities successful the bluish borderline authorities of Tamaulipas recovered 652 chiefly Central American migrants jammed into a convoy of six cargo trucks heading toward the U.S. border.

Irineo Mujica, an activistic who is starring a march of astir 400 migrants who person been walking for astir 1 1/2 months crossed confederate Mexico, blamed Thursday's catastrophe connected Mexico cracking down connected migrant caravans.

Mujica and his radical had astir reached the outskirts of Mexico City, aft weeks of dealing with National Guard officers who tried to artifact the march. Mujica said the radical would halt and connection prayers for the dormant migrants.

“These policies that termination us, that execution us, is what leads to this benignant of tragedy,” Mujica said.

In fact, they are 2 precise antithetic groups. Caravans mostly pull migrants who don’t person the thousands of dollars needed to wage migrant smugglers.

Migrants progressive successful superior accidents are often allowed to enactment successful Mexico astatine slightest temporarily due to the fact that they are considered witnesses to and victims of a crime, and Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said it would connection humanitarian visas to the survivors.

The bureau besides said the Mexican authorities would assistance place the dormant and screen ceremonial costs oregon repatriation of their remains.

Mass deaths of migrants are thing that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been hopeless to avoid, adjacent arsenic his medication has accepted requests from the U.S. authorities to stem the travel of migrants moving north.

“It is precise painful,” helium wrote connected his Twitter relationship astir the crash.

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