Truck crash kills 54 migrants in Mexico

FIFTY-FOUR mostly Central Americans were killed on Thursday when their truck flipped in southern Mexico, in one of the worst accidents involving migrants who risk their lives to reach the United States.

The trailer broke open, spilling out people when the truck crashed on a sharp curve outside the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez in the state of Chiapas, according to video footage of the aftermath from civil protection authorities.

Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandon said 49 people died at the scene, and five more died while receiving medical attention.

“It took a bend, and because of the weight of us people inside, we all went with it,” said a shocked Guatemalan man sitting at the scene in footage broadcast on social media.

“The trailer couldn’t handle the weight of people.” More than 100 people were inside the trailer, authorities said. Several dozen were injured and taken to hospitals in Chiapas, which borders Guatemala. Dozens of Guatemalan migrants were named in lists of the injured published on social media.

A video of the scene streamed on social media showed a woman holding a child wailing in her lap, both covered in blood. Another video showed a man curled up in pain inside the destroyed trailer, hardly moving as helpers pulled out bodies.

Men, women and children were among the dead, the Chiapas state government said, and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Twitter expressed his sorrow at the “very painful” incident.

Migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America typically trek through Mexico to reach the United States border, and sometimes cram into large trucks organized by smugglers in extremely dangerous conditions.

The journey north from Mexico’s border with Guatemala is perilous and expensive, and many migrants fall prey to criminal gangs en route. In January, 19 people, mostly migrants, were massacred with suspected police involvement in northern Mexico.

Record numbers of people have been arrested on the U.S.-Mexico border this year as migrants seek to capitalize on President Joe Biden’s pledge to pursue more humane immigration policies than his hardline predecessor, Donald Trump.

The Biden administration has also urged migrants not to leave their homelands for the United States, and this week saw the restart of a policy initiated under Trump to send asylum seekers back to Mexico to await their court hearings. Some critics argue that tougher policies push migrants into the hands of the human smugglers, putting their lives at risk.