They were on their way to the US and were helped out of the vehicle by residents of the state of Veracruz to avoid suffocating inside.
Residents of the Mexican state of Veracruz avoided a major migration tragedy never seen before this Thursday (early yesterday in Spain). A month after the June 27 drama that killed 53 undocumented immigrants chasing the American dream aboard an abandoned truck in Texas, events have repeated. This time on Aztec soil. In this case, it was the driver of a trailer carrying 400 migrants who, for reasons under investigation, left them stranded halfway and became trapped in the vehicle. A mousetrap that nearly choked them.
The Mexican government explained that they were treating 93 members of the group, who were en route to the United States and whose nationalities have not been disclosed. The rest fled not to be identified by authorities, fearing their journey would be cut short, as reported by Azteca television.
The rescued migrants reported running out of air and decided to break the top of the trailer. It was then that several witnesses and local residents helped them to avoid suffocation. “They say, among other things, that they broke the top part and that the workers of a gas station helped them to open the ones that were trapped inside. They were deserted and they were suffocating. There were about 400 people,” explains the doctor for civil protection of the municipality of Oluta, Cristóbal Cisneros.
Mexico’s Civil Defense, for its part, specified that some migrants were unconscious, others dehydrated and some had fractures after jumping from the vehicle’s roof. In total, twelve of the group members had to go to hospital.
“We have found people in very bad shape, some hypertensive, diabetics, people who jumped four meters high, therefore they have possible fractures, nervous breakdowns, minors, we have missed other children who left, but the work is being done to keep looking to assist them,” said Kenya Iveth de Dios, a doctor from the Civil Defense of Mexico.
The events that took place were immediately reminiscent of the human catastrophe that occurred a month ago in San Antonio, Texas. The more than 50 people killed in the truck left under the sun on a highway by the driver after a breakdown represent the greatest migration tragedy to have occurred in the United States. The bodies were so hot “it burned to the touch,” said San Antonio fire chief Charles Hood.
Transport in overcrowded trucks is precisely one of the most dangerous methods used by traffickers in the Aztec country. Despite this, migrants risk their lives in their desire to set foot on American soil. The data is devastating. According to the International Organization for Migration and the UN Refugee Agency, about 192 migrants have died this year while transiting through Central America and Mexico. As of 2014, the balance of deaths stands at 1,558.
Source: La Verdad
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