Death toll in Mexico migrant train wreck rises to 9

The death toll in the derailment of a cargo train carrying migrants in southern Mexico rose to nine after authorities found three bodies inside a freight car, officials said Tuesday.

The train known as “The Beast,” which carries Central American migrants who pay smugglers to sit atop freight cars, careened off the track in a swampy and remote area of Tabasco state on Sunday.

The train was believed to be carrying upwards of 250 migrants as it traveled slowly along a river before eight of 12 wagons packed with scrap metal flipped to their side. Authorities used cranes to lift the cars.

Search teams continue combing the wreckage of the freight train that derailed over the weekend in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco "to rule out the existence of more victims of the accident," while the bodies of the six Honduran migrants killed in the derailment are being repatriated, the National Migration Institute, or INM, said Tuesday.

A Federal Police plane is scheduled to fly the remains of the dead migrants Tuesday from the airport in Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco, to the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula.

Ruben Gomez Aguilar, 27; Felix Ponce Aguizon, 58; Gerardo Antonio Sandoval Diaz, 23; Jose Manuel Guerrero Sabillan, 20; Darlin Adriel Valle Banegas, 19; and Rufino Aguilar Ferrera, 22, were killed when the freight train known as "La Bestia" (The Beast) derailed on Sunday, the INM said in a statement.

Central American migrants headed for the United States ride on top of the freight train, with hundreds of people sometimes clinging to the train's cars.

A delegation of Foreign Relations Secretariat officials, Federal Police officers and INM officials accompanied the bodies to Honduras.

Luis Felipe Puente, Mexico’s national civil protection coordinator, later said on Twitter that three more bodies were discovered.

Although the federal transport ministry is investigating the accident and said the train was moving at just 10 kilometers (six miles) per hour, Tabasco state authorities blamed the derailment on speed and rain.

Officials "continue providing assistance to the migrants affected by the accident at shelters opened in the states of Tabasco and Veracruz," the INM said.

"There are more injured, but they did not want assistance because they feared being deported and preferred to stay like that," the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde, who is known for his work with Central American migrants, said.

Shelters along the route covered by the train are preparing to handle injured migrants who might show up over the next few days, the Mexican priest said.

The freight train derailed around 3:00 a.m. Sunday outside Huimanguillo, a city near Tabasco's border with Veracruz state.

The train went off the tracks close to the community of La Tembladera, officials said.

An estimated 300,000 Central Americans undertake the hazardous journey across Mexico each year on their way to the United States.

The trek is a dangerous one, with criminals and corrupt Mexican officials preying on the migrants.

Gangs kidnap, exploit and murder migrants, who are often targeted in extortion schemes, Mexican officials say.

Central American migrants follow a long route that first takes them into Chiapas state, which is on the border with Guatemala, walking part of the way or riding aboard freight trains, buses and cargo trucks.

Wednesday 28 August 2013

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/international/death-toll-in-mexico-migrant-train-wreck-rises-to-9/

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/08/27/search-continues-for-victims-mexico-train-derailment/