A truck with more than 100 migrants crashes in Mexico’s Chiapas state, killing dozens

By Robert Murray Last updated Dec 10, 2021

The incident happened in the Mexican state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala, when a truck carrying dozens of migrants crashed. Photos of the scene show the truck next to a walkway and the bodies arranged on the road wrapped in bags for corpses.

In the video footage taken shortly after the crash, people were seen spilling onto the road, next to a broken white trailer. The vehicle crashed into a sharp bend outside the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital of Chiapas.

Among the dead were children, women and men, Reuters reported, citing the Chiapas state government.

A witness who spoke to Reuters said they heard the sobs of the survivors as rescue workers arrived at the crash site, on a freeway walkway.

The governor of the state, Rutilio Escandón, tweeted that in addition to the deaths, 105 people were injured in the accident, including 83 men and 22 women.

Three people are still in serious condition, according to the prosecution.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said foreign nationals were among those killed.

“My condolences to the victims and affected families. In communication with the State Government and Civil Protection. We are contacting the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the affected countries,” Ebrard wrote on Twitter.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has shared his condolences on Twitter.

“I deeply regret the tragedy caused by the overturning of a trailer in Chiapas carrying Central American migrants,” the president said. “It’s very painful. I embrace the families of the victims.”

It is not immediately clear what caused the crash or why the victims were crammed into the truck. However, migration is very common from Central American countries such as Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, where violence, corruption, food insecurity and lack of economic opportunities have left many helpless.

The dangerous journey, often organized by human traffickers, travels north through Mexico to reach the U.S. border.

In November, Mexican authorities reported that they found about 600 migrants hiding in two trailers traveling through the state of Veracruz. The country’s National Migration Institute said it discovered 145 women and 455 men in closed cars heading north to the U.S. border.

The U.S. Border Patrol has arrested a record number of people for illegal crossings on the U.S.-Mexico border over the past year. There have also been a record number of people killed while trying to cross the border this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Lifeguards and authorities are working in the area where the truck overturned.

On Monday, the Biden administration relaunched the controversial Trump-era border policy known as “Remode in Mexico,” re-launching the program that allows officials to send non-Mexican migrants to Mexico to await their court hearings. of U.S. Immigration.

Under the Trump administration, thousands of migrants were subject to the program, officially known as Migrant Protection Protocols, and resided in makeshift camps along Mexico’s northern border, often in miserable and dangerous conditions.

President Joe Biden pledged to end the program and begin the process of admitting those migrants who had previously been subject to it. But a Texas federal judge disrupted those plans when he ordered the administration to review the policy.

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to the report.