Dozens of Migrants from Central America Die in Road Accident

VOA News
8 March 2019 (3:45AM)

At least 25 migrants from Central America died late Thursday in a road accident in Mexico’s Chiapas state.

Twenty-nine more were injured in the accident, after the overloaded truck they were traveling in ran off the road and overturned, the General Prosecutor of Chiapas said in a statement, adding that the injured were taken to hospitals and the accident was under investigation.

Citing authorities, local media reported that the driver of the three-ton truck, carrying more than 50 people could have lost control because of a mechanical failure.

Thousands of migrants, mainly from Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, embark on dangerous trips through Mexico each year trying to reach the United States.

In October a caravan with as many as 7,000 people fleeing poverty and violence in their countries, traveled through Mexico to Tijuana on the border with California before disbanding.

Chiapas is the historic entry point for Central American migrants arriving in Mexico from Guatemala, according to the Associated Press.