At least 10 migrants killed in Mexico truck accident

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - This handout picture released by Pijijiapan's Civil Protection shows members of the municipal police and the civil protection office rescuing migrant people after a truck accident in Pijijiapan, Chiapas state, Mexico on October 1, 2023. A new road accident in the Mexican state of Chiapas (south), the second in less than a week, left at least 10 migrants dead on Sunday, presumably all women from Cuba who were traveling clandestinely in a rudimentary cargo truck. — Handout pic via AFP

TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ, Mexico, Oct 2 — At least 10 Cuban migrants were killed and 25 injured on Sunday when a cargo truck carrying them overturned in southern Mexico, local officials reported, the latest fatal crash involving US-bound migrants.

The accident took place in southern Chiapas state, near the border with Guatemala, the report said.

A source in the prosecutor's office, who spoke on grounds of anonymity, told AFP the victims were apparently from Cuba and all were women, including one minor.

The accident occurred on a highway along the Pacific coast between the towns of Pijijiapan and Tonala, where migrants often travel as they attempt to reach the United States — part of a flow drawing increasingly urgent attention in Washington.

The truck, its body built partly of wood, was destroyed, with the migrants' clothes, bags and backpacks strewn around it.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel lamented the tragedy and said the Mexican embassy was offering assistance.

"We urge you to use established, safe and orderly routes when emigrating," he told Cubans looking to leave their country.

On Thursday, two migrants died when a truck overturned in the Chiapas municipality of Mezcalapa.

Thousands of migrants from different countries have been traveling across Mexico in cramped buses, trailers and freight trains — or on foot — in an attempt to reach the United States.

In early August, at least 18 people died and another 23 were injured after a bus with local passengers and migrants from countries such as India, the Dominican Republic and some African nations plunged into a ravine in the state of Nayarit.

This weekend, in the northern states of Chihuahua and Zacatecas, nearly 3,000 migrants were stranded in isolated areas when the freight trains they were traveling on inexplicably stopped.

'Help'

Mexican authorities said they detained more than 189,000 migrants last month, while the US border patrol has reported 1.8 million apprehensions between October 2022 and August 2023.

With the influx of migrants "overwhelming" Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has called on his US counterpart for "help."

On Friday, Washington and Mexico City pledged to redouble their efforts to strengthen economic and security cooperation on migration issues, as well as drug and arms trafficking.

Republican lawmakers in Washington have grown increasingly angered by the migrant arrivals and have called on President Joe Biden's administration to do more to address the issue.

After passing a last-minute measure on Saturday to avoid a US government shutdown, Republican leaders expressed a willingness to block any additional funding for Ukraine's war effort unless more is spent on the border.

"I'm going to make sure that the weapons are provided for Ukraine," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday, "but they're not going to get some big package if the border is not secure."

He did not define what it would take for him to consider the border as being "secure." — AFP