The number of Venezuelans who died in Nicaragua when a bus full of migrants fell off a cliff rose to 15, the local government reported Friday.
The accident occurred last Wednesday night when a bus, which was traveling with dozens of migrants to the Nicaraguan border area with Honduras, collided with two cars and later plunged off a cliff, on a dangerous section of the Pan-American Highway known as ” La Cucamonga”, according to the official version.
Initially, the Nicaraguan Police reported 16 deaths, of which 13 were Venezuelans, one Nicaraguan, and two unknown.
Venezuelans killed in accidents increase
In her speech this afternoon, the Vice President of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, reported two other fatalities from Venezuela. Without disclosing their identities, and without referring to the total number of deceased, which in such a case would remain at 16.
Murillo, who said that the government of her husband, President Daniel Ortega, is holding talks with Caracas, expressed her interest in the families of the victims in Venezuela give their consent as soon as possible for the repatriation of the bodies.
“Their families have to give their consent for the repatriation of the bodies. And in that we are, investigating, locating. Above all, wanting to have the consent as quickly as possible so that they receive, as each one decides, their loved ones,” Murillo said.
Nicaraguans make donations to survivors
Meanwhile, Nicaraguans have overflowed since yesterday at the San Juan de Dios Hospital, in the city of Estelí, 149 kilometers north of Managua. Near where the accident occurred, to donate food and supplies to survivors.
Clothes, water, blankets, plates with food, personal hygiene material, among others, were spontaneously taken by Nicaraguan residents to the medical assistance center, according to some of the donors.
The case of a three-year-old girl, who was supposedly orphaned when her parents died in the accident. began to sound with more frequency in local media, including some of the official ones. But so far the authorities have neither denied nor confirmed the situation.
According to the local press, the minor is called Adalin Valeria. She and she is apparently the daughter of Venezuelan victims Jordán José Castellano Castillo and Cinthia Ninoska Rojas.
“La Cucamonga”, where this type of accident occurs periodically, is a section of the Pan-American Highway flanked by chasms and unstable walls, which cannot be avoided. And that connects the border area of Nicaragua with the rest of the country.
