“There were so many of us that we couldn’t even sit down”: how are the trips of migrants crammed into trucks like the one that overturned in Mexico

The tragedy that this week claimed the lives of more than 50 migrants when the truck in which they were traveling overcrowded overturned in the south of Mexico it once again exposed the increasingly subhuman conditions they endure in their attempts to reach the United States.

Still shocked and with neck injuries from the blow, Emerson Morales told BBC Mundo how the trip was just before the accident this Thursday in Chiapas, from which he managed to survive along with a hundred people.

“In the truck we went in rows. I was at number 6, at the bottom. There were so many of us that we couldn’t even sit down ”, he recalls about the overcrowding in which more than 160 people were traveling, most of them Guatemalans.

The heat and humidity of this region of Mexico multiplied in the crowd inside the trailer.

The government revealed that migrant smugglers had slit the top of the truck so they could breathe.

But this may have affected their safety. They could have been projected when the accident occurred”Declared Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, Undersecretary of Public Security.

It was after only an hour and a half of travel in the truck that the driver lost control due to speeding before reaching the Chiapas capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez. It overturned and crashed into what some residents call “the bridge of death” due to the number of accidents that occur on this steep curve.

“I think there were many of us. There were so many of us that we had to stand up where we could, and I think that also caused the accident. Since they couldn’t sit down, some of them moved, I guess that rocked the whole thing and it tipped over, ”thinks Emerson.

Crowded and unable to sit

Alejandro Martínez, first officer of the Tuxtla Gutiérrez firefighters, recalls how during the rescue they had to remove the mass of iron that protruded from the truck bed to try to save “the people who kept moving, trapped among the dead.”

“The trailer had a completely sealed box, made of foil. It only had that minimal air filtration so that they could breathe with the same wind generated by the speed of the truck ”, he tells BBC Mundo.

He believes that the weight of the vehicle also contributed to the loss of control. And that, before the moment of impact, the people on board had already been crushed and suffered injuries. It was in the collision with the bridge that many died instantly.

He acknowledges that the psychological consequences for rescuers are the order of the day after having to attend such damaging events as the one in Chiapas. Also for Eduardo Escobar, a Red Cross paramedic who was the first of the emergency services to arrive at the scene.

“I’ve never seen an incident with so many dead. I was amazed to see so many people shouting and asking for our support, many people on top of each other in the trailer… It is something I cannot say in words, ”he says.

The wounded are classified by color according to their severity: green, yellow and red. Black is reserved for the deceased.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to do more for the deceased. But we are satisfied because we managed to save many people ”, he assures BBC Mundo.

“Billionaire business”

The use of trucks to transport large groups of hidden migrants is nothing new.

As reported this Saturday by the Mexican National Institute of Migration (INM), so far this year more than 35,000 migrants have been identified in 446 “Massive bailouts”, as the entity usually refers to when it intercepts those who travel in large groups on Mexican soil.

“It has been identified that the transfers are carried out on a regular basis in vehicles not suitable for the transport of passengers, so that being in overcrowded conditions, lacking food, water and ventilation, the physical integrity of people is put at risk, ”the INM statement reads.

But the groups that are detained are minimal compared to how many manage to reach the border in what it means “A millionaire business” not only for migrant smugglers but also for implicated authorities, as reported by the journalist Ángeles Mariscal, founder of the Chiapas Paralelo portal.

“Passing the roadblocks is achieved thanks to corrupt authorities. When they opt for the journey in the jungle, the one who collects this fee is the Army. It is a multimillion dollar business with a lot of corruption among all the corporations, and that makes it continue to happen ”, he assures in an interview with BBC Mundo.

Pass through checkpoints

Luis Rodríguez Burcio, commander of the National Guard, denied after the tragedy that the trailer I would have crossed one of the roadside immigration posts.

However, a few kilometers before the place where the accident occurred, there is a police checkpoint through which the vehicle had to pass.

“That checkpoint is there day and night, permanently. You will tell me how they managed to get through, ”a taxi driver from Tuxtla Gutiérrez told BBC Mundo, who asked to remain anonymous.

Very close to that checkpoint, several truck drivers were resting this Saturday from their work in front of a small restaurant on the road. Some neighbors say that migrants are sometimes seen getting off trucks parked at this point.

Orlando is a young man who transports cement to Veracruz from Comitán, the municipality on the border with Guatemala from which the accident truck left on Thursday morning.

However, he assures that he has never received a proposal to bring migrants nor does he know anyone who has. Not much less how much they can earn.

“We are used to checkpoints. They usually check the interior, dismantle even parts of the inside … they ask you if you bring drugs, all that, “he tells BBC Mundo.

“Those checkpoints are to extort money from you!” Interrupts another trucker who overhears the conversation.

Poster control

To these payments are added the usual fees that migrants pay to coyotes or Polleros who guide them through the different stages of the trip.

In this region of southern Mexico there is a well-known migrant route that runs along the coast after crossing the Suchiate River, on the border with Guatemala. Those who pass through Tuxtla Gutiérrez, however, enter Mexico through La Mesilla, a mountainous area very crowded by illegal traffic.

From there, the group of migrants from the crashed truck traveled to Comitán. According to Ángeles Mariscal, with extensive knowledge of the migratory flows in Chiapas, this journey through which they passed has become one of the hottest areas in the state.

“It was an area controlled by the Sinaloa cartel and now the New Generation Jalisco is contesting it. Due to this dispute that was detonated this year there are curfews and ‘narco-blockades’ in this area, “he says.

On Thursday morning, the trailer began its journey from Comitan. Their objective was to reach Puebla and then continue to the US border. As they pass each region, at each stage, they have to pay the different criminal groups that control them through human smugglers.

“There have been murders of migrants because the pollero who brought them did not want to pay the cartels in an area”, Mariscal recalls to describe the maximum vulnerability of these people.

More money and more risk

Some, the least, dare to travel on their own without the support of traffickers, mainly Hondurans and Salvadorans who tend to know the area better.

“But in this case, the majority were from rural areas of Guatemala who do not know this geography and are more vulnerable because they come from poor areas or because sometimes they do not speak Spanish well,” says Mariscal.

All these payments during the route make the migrants have to commit to disburse astronomical figures that sometimes they do not even have. According to Emerson Morales, one of the survivors of the accident, the total cost of crossing the border ranges between US $ 10,300 and US $ 13,000.

His motive for not hesitating in financially mortgaging for life and risking such a dangerous trip is that of almost all his compatriots: fleeing the poverty that haunts their communities in Central America and trying to find work in the United States to rule. money to their families and give them a more dignified life.

Humanitarian groups criticized that the militarization promoted by Mexico to try to stop them from passing through its territory is leading migrants to seek even more dangerous routes that increase their vulnerability and for which they have to pay even more money.

The Mexican government did not respond to this possibility but limited itself to pointing out responsibility for the problem of human traffickers. For this reason, he announced the creation of an action group together with other Latin American countries against the networks that operate on the continent.

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