(Mexico City) Thirty-seven migrants, including 22 without identity papers, died from January to May 2022 in Mexico, most of them trying to cross the Rio Grande, a natural border with the United States, said Sunday the Mexican government.
Posted yesterday at 7:38 p.m.
Of the 37, “33 drowned and four others lost their lives for various other reasons in the states of Veracruz (east) and Baja California (northwest)”, said the National Institute of Migration (INM ) in a press release.
Among them, 22 “had no identity papers”. Of those identified, four were from Mexico, four from Nicaragua and three from Honduras. There was also a Guatemalan, a Cuban, a Peruvian and a Venezuelan.
Five of the 37 migrants were women, according to the INM.
Each year, tens of thousands of migrants from Central America and other Latin American countries seek to reach the United States, fleeing violence and poverty at home.
However, on their way through Mexico, many fall victim to crime or extortion, and others die in accidents.
The most serious incident occurred in December, when a tractor-trailer carrying 160 migrants hit a pedestrian bridge in Chiapas, killing 56.
On Monday, a “caravan” of thousands of illegal immigrants left the Mexican town of Tapachula (Chiapas, south) with the intention of going to the United States.
Four days later, the Mexican government began giving hundreds of them a document that guarantees they can stay in Mexico for 30 days without fear of deportation.
The “caravans” of migrants crossing Mexico have been subjects of tension with the United States since the time of US President Donald Trump (2017-2021).
Since then, Mexico has tightened its controls at its southern border and in 2021, 307,679 migrants were detained.