Three days after the worst traffic tragedy in Panamait has not yet been possible to know what happened to the two Cuban migrants who were traveling along with 64 others on the bus involved in the terrible accident that occurred in Gualaca, Chiriquí province, coming from Darién, in the early hours of last Wednesday.
So far, the balance of deaths amounts to 41 and several seriously injured. The isthmus immigration authorities have reported that 66 migrants of nine nationalities were traveling on the bus.
The transport carried 22 Ecuadorians, 16 Haitians, 11 Venezuelans, 6 Brazilians, 5 Colombians, 2 Cubans, 2 from Cameroon, 1 from Nigeria and 1 from Eritrea. Of that total, 30 were men, 16 women, 12 boys and 8 girls.
Two Panamanian citizens were also traveling, the driver, who died at the scene, and an assistant who was injured.
The National Government informs that the Public Ministry continues to carry out studies to identify the lifeless bodies, after the accident that occurred in Gualaca, Chiriquí.
Furthermore, through @MINSAPma Resources have been allocated to care for survivors. pic.twitter.com/0te7uZt97d– Presidency of Panama (@presidenciapma) February 16, 2023
Panamanian authorities reported that are receiving support from the United States embassy, from a forensic firm from the northern country itself and from Florida International University to carry out DNA tests to identify the migrants who died.
Local investigators have conducted interviews with the surviving victims with the intervention of a team of psychologists and social workers; Likewise, with the collaboration of experts, the taking of fingerprint samples has begun to be able to carry out the comparison with the information obtained from their countries of origin, the Public Ministry reported, according to the newspaper La Prensa this Saturday.
according to a release of the Presidency, the work of identifying all the deceased has become complex due to the condition of the bodies and it recorded difficulties in identifying all the survivors, because some arrived unconscious at the hospitals and without documents, apparently lost in the site of the tragedy.
The Cuban embassy in Panama assured that it was in communication with the local authorities, to carry out efforts to identify victims of Cuban nationality, after the occurrence of the bus accident that transported irregular migrants.
The incident occurred on Wednesday around four in the morning in Gualaca, an area in the province of Chiriquí, located about 450 kilometers from the Panamanian capital, near the border with Costa Rica, when the bus was heading to one of the temporary migratory stations.
