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Mexico Warns US After 10 Migrants Die

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MEXICO CITY (Worthy News) – Mexico’s president warned Monday that tens of thousands of migrants are still on their way to the U.S. border despite the dangers after at least 10 migrants died on Sunday.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador spoke while local authorities were investigating the death of 10 Cubans who died when the cargo truck ferrying them had an accident in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. At least 17 others were injured in the tragedy, Mexico’s migration institute said on Sunday.

The accident occurred along the Pacific coast stretch of the Pijijiapan-Tonalá highway in Chiapas. It is a standard route taken by migrants who cross into Mexico from Guatemala north towards the United States.

The driver of the Ford truck, which was not designed to carry so many people, fled the accident scene, added the National Migration Institute (INM). “According to the first reports, the driver was speeding, lost control of the unit, and overturned,” the INM added.

Footage showed a truck without number plates turned on its side in a ditch by the highway, with half of the wooden bed and the tall side panels on its right side torn off.

However, more deadly accidents were expected, with López Obrador saying at least “10,000 migrants per day” are trying to reach the neighboring United States. He lashed out at Washington for imposing economic sanctions on countries like Cuba and Venezuela that he said contributed to the influx.

López Obrador said the number of migrants reaching Mexico’s northern border with the United States was partly due to about 6,000 migrants per day crossing into Mexico from Guatemala over the past week.

DANGEROUS ROUTES

He said many of those migrants, including men, women, and many children, are traveling on a route through Central America that includes the jungle-clad Darien Gap region between Panama and Colombia.

Over the weekend, the president also condemned U.S. aid for wartorn Ukraine, which Russia had invaded.

He said the United States should spend some of the money sent to Ukraine on economic development in Latin America.

“They (the U.S.) don’t do anything,” he said Friday. “It’s more, a lot more, what they authorize for the war in Ukraine than what they give to help with poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

However, critics point out that López Obrador’s administration has done little to stop migrants from taking risks, including hopping freight trains toward the U.S. border. Mexico’s largest railway line complained last month and stopped some trains, citing safety risks.

Sunday’s Cuban deaths also confirmed broader concerns about people crossing the country to the United States in unauthorized and poorly maintained vehicles. In December 2021, at least 54 people believed to be of mostly Central American descent were killed when their truck flipped over in Chiapas, according to investigations.