The Government of Mexico will grant visitor cards for humanitarian reasons to 23 migrants, including four Cubans, who were injured after a bus fell into a ravine in the Mexquitic de Carmona municipality, in the state of San Luis Potosí.
“In the accident, a pregnant woman and six other people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador died,” he explained to 14ymedio a source from Immigration, an entity that “has already contacted the consulates and will cover the costs for the transfer of the bodies.”
The official denied the death of Cubans, a rumor that initially spread through the networks. “The emergency services reported at the scene six people diedthe seventh victim died while they were giving him care.” The island’s natives are processed for a card that allows them to stay in Mexico for 180 days.
Among the other migrants who will be granted this permit are 11 who come from El Salvador, seven from Honduras and one from Panama. “14 foreigners remain hospitalized” and one Mexican. All are stable and are being treated at the Central Hospital and Soledad Hospital, in the state of San Luis Potosí.
Regarding the causes, versions of the victims indicate that the bus driver detected faults when they passed through the town of Zacatepec, in the State of Mexico, but decided to continue. It was at kilometer two of the highway that connects San Luis Potosí with Zacatecas that a noise was heard, the driver lost control and the unit fell into a ravine.
A guard at the Quiqueland amusement park, near the scene of the accident, informed the authorities that several of the people who came on the bus with the legend “Premier Class” entered the wooded area. “Among them is the driver, so we do not rule out that more migrants travel in the unit,” mentions the Migration agent.
The accident vehicle had taken an alternate route to avoid the checkpoints. The state of San Luis Potosí is an obligatory step to reach the border of Mexico with the United States. From this point they can be transferred to Monterrey and from there to Nuevo Laredo, on the Tamaulipas border with US territory. Another route is to go to Saltillo, in the border state of Coahuila, and from there to Piedras Negras to try to reach Eagle Pass, in Texas.
At the beginning of this year, after the arrest of 22 Cubans, the authorities of San Luis Potosí detected a network of coyotes who charges from 8,000 to 10,000 dollars for the transfer to the border with the United States. In May, as part of the reinforcement of Mexico’s immigration policy to stop the transit of undocumented immigrants, they made themselves known 1,608 interceptions in a single day47 of them in the state of Potosí, where they located houses used by the smugglers.
The authorities are aware that a new migrant caravan is being organized in Tapachula, Chiapas. “It is made up of Haitians, Guatemalans, Hondurans and Venezuelans. We are aware that Cubans, Nicaraguans and Colombians are leaving in cargo trucks,” says the Migration source.
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