The deceased, mostly Venezuelans, were on their way to the United States on Wednesday night when there was a collision between several vehicles at a dangerous intersection on the Pan-American highway.
Nicaragua became the night of Wednesday, early Thursday morning in Spain, the scene of the latest migratory tragedy. The events occurred at the dangerous intersection known as the Cucamonga slope, located at kilometer 171.5 of the Pan-American highway, when for reasons that are being investigated a bus carrying 90 people heading to the United States collided with four other vehicles and fell from a height of 80 meters. As a result, sixteen fatalities were recorded, mostly Venezuelans, as well as 47 injuries.
The Nicaraguan National Police detailed in a statement the names of the deceased and their nationalities. “16 people died, including 5 women and 11 men. Thirteen of Venezuelan nationality, one Nicaraguan and two pending identification,” the institution detailed. Meanwhile, investigations have been opened to clarify the events that have shaken the northern department of Estelí.
The official local radio station La Primerísima has reported that both the bus driver and his assistant have been detained by the authorities to “know their degree of responsibility in the spectacular accident.” Both came out unharmed, according to the photographs spread on social networks and Nicaraguan media, in which an overwhelming trail of bodies could be seen while local residents helped rescue people from inside the bus.
Migrants, who often travel at the mercy of the mafias that traffic them and expose themselves to countless abuses on their way to the ‘American dream’, are frequently victims of tragedies that end up costing them their lives. The most recent took place on June 27, when fifty of them suffocated to death inside a truck in Texas that had been abandoned in the sun on a highway after suffering a breakdown. The bodies were so hot “it burned to touch them,” according to San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood at the time.
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