Horror in Texas: the tragedies that cost the lives of thousands of migrants in Mexico and the United States

Suffocated, massacred, victims of traffic accidents or drowned, thousands of migrants have lost their lives in recent years in its attempt to reach the United States.

The most recent case occurred on a freeway in San Antonio, Texas on Monday. where 50 migrants were found dead in and around an abandoned truck.

At least 22 were Mexicans, seven Guatemalans and two Hondurans, while the identity of the other victims is unknown.

“They were hot to the touch, they suffered from heat stroke (…) as there was no trace of water in the vehicleThis was said by the head of the San Antonio fire department, Charles Hood.

horror figures

Since 2014, some 6,430 migrants have died or gone missing en route to the United States, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM). Of them, 1,248 in 2021 alone.

More than 60% of those deaths occurred on the 3,169 km border between Mexico and the United States. As of June 22 of this year, IOM had documented 493 dead or missing, including 46 minors, on the American continent.

The leading cause of these deaths since 2014 is drowning. with 1,750 cases, most of which occurred in the Rio Grande, the natural border between Mexico and the United States.

Lack of water, food and a place to stay has cost the lives of 861 people since 2014; another 852 were victims of violence and 850 died in accidents or due to travel in subhuman conditions, according to the IOM.

Here are the main tragedies that have occurred since 2003, including that of San Antonio is counted as one of the worst.

dangerous border

– December 9, 2021a caravan that was smuggling around 160 irregular migrants crashed into a pedestrian bridge on a highway in Chiapas (southern Mexico), killing 56, 40 from Guatemala.

– January 22, 2021 The charred bodies of 19 people, 16 of them Guatemalans, were found in a rural area of ​​the state of Tamaulipas (northeast), very close to the border with the United States. About twenty police officers and immigration officers were arrested as likely culprits.

– On 23 July 2017, A dozen migrants were found dead inside an abandoned trailer park in a shopping mall parking lot in San Antonio, Texas. Without ventilation and with the air conditioning broken, the vehicle’s temperature reached 65 degrees Celsius.

– The night of August 22, 2010, a group of 72 migrants, mostly Central Americans, were murdered by members of the Los Zetas cartel in the municipality of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, less than 200 km from the border. According to the authorities, the criminals would have executed them because they refused to be recruited.

– May 14, 2003at least 19 foreigners died of suffocation inside a tractor-trailer traveling on a Texas highway.

Source: AFP

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