Local authorities confirmed on Tuesday the death of eight migrantsincluding three from Ecuador, two from Cuba and one more from Venezuela, after a car accident in Puebla, in the center of Mexicowhich also left nine people injured.
The authorities report two more fatal victims of unknown identity and in serious health condition to seven of the nine migrants who survived the event, when the vehicle in which they were traveling overturned on the stretch of the Azumbilla-Cañada Morelos highwayin the south of the state of Puebla, according to the Spanish agency EFE.
Although the accident occurred last week, the event gained notoriety this Tuesday after a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility of Ecuador, which reported an investigation by the Mexican authorities, the media outlet specifies.
Statement from the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry on the accident that occurred in Puebla, Mexico pic.twitter.com/E91jbkPVfg
– Foreign Ministry of Ecuador ?? (@CancilleriaEc) August 15, 2022
Updated information from the Mexican authority indicates that there were also five injured Ecuadorians, four of whom were children, including one whose arm had to be amputated.
Two children aged 7 and 14 were transferred to the Poblano Children’s Hospital, located in the state capital, where it is also reported that a minor has a skull fracture.
According to preliminary reports, the migrants were traveling in a truck with a report of theft, so the whereabouts of the driver who fled the scene is unknown, and who is responsible for traveling in those conditions.
The National Migration Institute (INM) of Mexico revealed the list of those killed and injured in the accident, which according to EFE includes a Cuban named Yaritza Rodríguez Bruzon, and another citizen of the Island, whom she only identifies as Tamara . Cuban Daimarys Morales Jerez is also reported among the injured.
In addition, three Ecuadorian women lost their lives in the incident, including a minor of just 1 year 8 months, an 11-year-old Venezuelan boy, and a woman and an infant as strangers.
In the case of the deceased Venezuelan minor, he was initially reported missing, but his remains were discovered near the place, after a search initiated by his relatives through social networks from Venezuela, he says. EFE.
The agency itself points out that three Ecuadorian women and one Venezuelan woman are being treated at the Tehuacán General Hospital, all in serious condition, as well as an unknown woman. While in the Hospital del Niño Poblano the two Ecuadorian minors are in serious condition, and in the General Hospital of Ciudad Serdán there is a Venezuelan, who is also serious but stable.
The fact has aroused condemnation from local institutions such as the Ibero-American University in Puebla, which asked the Mexican government “to seek effective policy alternatives closer to what is established in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.”
For its part, the Archdiocese of Puebla offered a Sunday mass for the victims and called for better treatment for migrants crossing through Mexico.
Thousands of Latin American migrants, including many Cubans, try to reach the southern border of the United States irregularly through Mexican territory with the aim of crossing it and settling in that country.
According to the most up-to-date figures from the United States Department of Customs and Border Protection, only in the first eight months of the current fiscal year (as of October 2021) more than 140,000 migrants from the Island have arrived in the United States.
EFE / OnCuba
