(Mexico City) A new dramatic accident involving migrants in southern Mexico left at least 18 dead on Friday, all from Venezuela and Haiti, when their bus overturned.
This accident occurs just five days after the death of ten Cuban women crowded into a truck which overturned on a road in the state of Chiapas (south). It also comes as the flow of migrants seeking to reach the United States continues to increase.
This new tragedy cost the lives of “two women, three minors and 13 men, all from Venezuela and Haiti,” said the Attorney General of the State of Oaxaca in a press release, also reporting 27 injured. .
The National Institute of Migration (INM) indicated for its part that 55 foreigners were on board the vehicle and that Peruvian nationals were among the victims, without further details.
The tragedy occurred around 5 a.m. local time (7 a.m. Eastern time) when the driver of the bus lost control of the vehicle which overturned on a road linking the cities of Oaxaca and Cuacnopalan , in the neighboring state of Puebla (center), said the prosecution.
The injured were transported to hospitals in the region, according to the same source.
Also last week two migrants were killed and 27 others injured when the truck carrying them overturned in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
At the beginning of August, in the west of the country, at least 18 people died and 23 others were injured in the accident of a bus which fell into a ravine. The vehicle was mainly transporting migrants.
The most serious accident occurred in December 2021 when 50 migrants crammed into the trailer of a truck died in the state of Chiapas. The truck was carrying a total of 160 migrants. Most of the victims were from Central America.
Many migrants cross Mexico illegally, crammed into buses, trucks and even freight trains, in very difficult conditions, in an attempt to reach the United States.
More than a thousand migrants arrived Tuesday in Ciudad Juárez, on the border between Mexico and the United States, perched on a freight train after around ten days of travel.
Dangerous road
The US Border Patrol officially recorded 1.8 million migrant crossings at its southern border between October 2022 and August 2023. A record 233,000 people crossed the southern border in August.
A report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) released on September 12 found that the US-Mexico border was the “most dangerous land migration route in the world” in 2022, with 686 deaths or missing persons recorded.
Venezuelans are one of the most represented nationalities among migrants who regularly arrive at the southern border of the United States.
According to the UN, more than seven million people have fled Venezuela since its economy collapsed.
Faced with this influx of migrants, American President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he had decided to resume direct expulsions of illegal immigrants to Venezuela.
This announcement coincides with another spectacular immigration decision by the Biden administration, which will resume construction of the wall wanted by former President Donald Trump on the border with Mexico.
Most people seeking to enter the United States come from Venezuela, but also from Ecuador, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, mired for years in an economic and political crisis worsened by gang violence.