At least 55 people have died in a fateful traffic accident recorded on the highways of southern Mexico. The first hypotheses point to the fact that the truck in which 152 migrants traveled was circulating at great speed and lost the brakes in a pronounced curve, causing the vehicle to be dump over the shoulder. In addition to the deadly victims, there are 73 injured, three in a serious state, and 24 unharmed migrants, according to the last update of the National Civil Protection Coordinator, Laura Velázquez Alzúa. All of them were crowded in the vehicle's box at the time of the brutal accident. The authorities have enclosed the place of the facts and have moved to those affected at nearby hospitals, while looking for the driver of the trailer, who went to the escape.
The tragedy took place on the outskirts of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of Chiapas, around 15.30 local time. A few meters from the accident was a military retainer that, on these highways, usually focuses its tasks in the search for undocumented migrants that travel hidden in vehicles. The truck came out in the morning from Guatemala and was heading to Veracruz, following the traditional route that many Central Americans who want to reach us are used. The witnesses have denounced that, when checking the severity of the facts, the driver of the truck escaped through the Grijalva River.
The governor of the State of Chiapas, Rutilio Escandón, has sent a message of "solidarity with the victims" promising that "responsibilities will be determined according to the law." Although they have not yet transcended the affected nationalities, the Honduran President Alejandro Giammattei, has regretted the tragedy and has offered "consular assistance for repatriation of bodies". The harsh conditions of the trip that migrants undertake in their desperate flight to the US had a similar chapter last October that, fortunately, it was outless without fatal victims: Mexican migratory authorities found in Tamaulipas three abandoned and no ventilation trucks, where they traveled 652 people, 349 minors.
The accident has transcended the same day that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has published its annual report on the insecurity of migrants in the region. The conclusions of the study are demolding: At least 650 people died this year when trying to cross the border between Mexico and the US, the highest figure since the Agency began to document it in 2014. Michele Klein Solomon, Regional Director of the IOM Central, North and the Caribbean, denounced that "the growing number of migrant deaths in the region is very alarming." With these figures, the victims accumulated since 2014 exceed 5,755.
On December 6, Joe Well and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) decided to reinstate the 'Stay in Mexico' program, a plan devised by Former President Trump to force migrants who request asylum in their country to wait for it to be Resolve their procedures in the dangerous Mexican border cities. The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimates that 71,000 migrants have been expelled under this protocol that qualify as "aberrant".
Ari Sawyer, Investigator of the NGO, believes that the border agencies of both governments "have been involved in a large number of abuses that are intrinsic to the program" and denounces that "there is no way for a program designed to postpone the right to request Asylum, forcing people to wait at dangerous sites, can operate in a way that respects human rights. "
Natural disasters and the economic crisis caused by the pandemic have fueled a diaspora of unprecedented Central Americans. The figures thrown by the different border agencies confirm that trend: US has detained 1.7 million migrants this year at the border, the triple of the average registered between 2012 and 2020, while its neighbor neighbor has stopped near 230,000, more than in any other year.
The decision of the Government of López Obrador of militarizing the highways of the south of the country has forced migrants to take more risks and travel in a clandestinity that, as this fateful accident shows, often has deadly consequences.
"Do not fall asleep! Do not close your eyes," he begs a migrant to his badly fellow after turning the truck in which clandestinely traveled along with more than a hundred undocumented, mostly Central American.
That scene is the first thing he saw and heard Sabina López, one of many neighbors of El Refugio - a popular neighborhood near the highway - which ran after listening to the rumble of trailer against the road that alerted that something serious had happened.
The suspicion was confirmed once they arrived on the road.
"Remember what you promised your mom! Ends," he recalls Sabina who implored the man to his badly friend.
The panorama that the woman found was desolate: dozens screaming with pain, many trapped in the shredded box of the vehicle, other unconscious and some unharmed but hugging, terrified and unbelievers.
"It was horrible to hear the laments, I just thought about helping," said López, 18, AFP.
That report did not specify the nationality of the victims, but regional authorities reported that they are mostly Guatemalans.
Lopez explains that the trailer crashed into the wall of a pedestrian bridge and turned with such violence that the box split in half and the roof was detached.
"The migration arrived and we were told that we helped pick up the backpacks because there are identification documents. Then we were putting them aside, we were stacking and they took them away," he says.
They themselves assumed the role of rescuers. They went down to the migrants of the box as they could. The deceased deposited them in a row on the asphalt and then covered them with white sheets.
"There were a lot of people lying, some were already dead, we help the paramedics in what we could with other boys for helping those who still had vital signs," Narra Isaiah Díaz, who arrived 15 minutes after the sinister.
Other neighbors of El Refugio affirm that the driver and another person who came with him were bloody, but they got to the escape, almost dragging his feet.
The transfer of migrants in trucks is one of the most common methods with which people traffickers enter them in Mexican territory, with the aim of reaching the northern border of the country and trying to cross towards the United States.
Some, desperate, telephoned emergency services. Others dedicated themselves to the inevitable: start accommodating the dead.
"I saw five, six children, wounded obviously. People (who had) broken legs, ribs, head, cuts on the neck, of all," describes Díaz impacted.
Minutes later a first police patrol appeared, whose agents were limited to comment on them that they would make calls to arrive "as soon as possible" the aid of ambulances.
The neighbors indicated that a few kilometers from the place of the tragedy is a contest of the municipal police, so it is surprised that the trailer will march at great speed.
"It was lousy, the truth ... crying, pain, despair. A very ugly environment is breathed," adds Díaz.
In addition to helping them, some neighbors consoled the survivors, offering water or their cell phones to be communicated with their families, attended AFP.
Date Of Update: 10 December 2021, 04:40
