Calls for accountability 1 year after Mexico migrant tragedy
Chiapa de Corzo, Mexico, Dec 9 (EFE).- One year after the Mexico truck crash tragedy that killed dozens of migrants from Central and South America, the authorities have neither found those responsible nor reported on the progress of the case, religious authorities said Friday.
On Dec. 9, 2021, a truck trailer packed with migrants overturned on a Chiapas highway, killing 56.
On Friday, the archbishop of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Fabio Martínez Castilla, called on the Mexican authorities to “find out the person(s) responsible for the accident that caused the death of the migrants who were traveling in a crowded trailer box.”
At the end of the mass that he held in memory of the dead, he told reporters that “it is precisely a year and we don’t know anything.”
“I call on the authorities to make their (migrants’) voices heard. Something must be done for the migrants, something must be done for the defenseless people and for those who suffer.”
The ceremony took place next to the so-called Puente del Migrante, where the tragic accident took place.
The mass was attended by nuns and residents of the area, who remembered the tragic day. They lit candles in the migrants’ memory.
Families donated images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and San Juan Diego for the local chapel.
Because it borders Guatemala, the state of Chiapas is an obligatory transit for migrants seeking to reach the United States. However, they do so on roads in poor condition or controlled by organized crime.
Traveling crammed into trailers is one of the most dangerous methods used to travel across Mexico to the US, for which they pay smugglers thousands of dollars.
According to reports from organizations, 2022 has been the most tragic year, with at least 853 migrants dying in the last 12 months in their attempt to cross the Mexican-US border without documents.
Despite the eminent danger they are in, thousands of migrants who have left their countries in search of opportunities and the American Dream continue to cross the southern border. EFE
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