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Latin American countries such as Mexico, Ecuador and Guatemala are joining with the United States to stop the smuggling networks that bring hundreds of migrants, often in extreme conditions, to the US-Mexico border. The initiative takes place after the fatal accident on Thursday in which 55 people who were transported in a truck lost their lives.
The United States, Mexico and several countries in the region expressed their willingness to join forces to investigate, identify and capture the network of human traffickers who caused the deadly truck accident in which 55 people died.
The United States embassy in Mexico said that Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic will also join, but that the call to participate is open to all countries in the region.
“We have a shared commitment to apply the full weight of the law against those responsible, in addition to working in a coordinated manner to combat human trafficking and smuggling in all its manifestations,” the Americans said.
We are ready to collaborate with countries in the region to investigate, identify, apprehend, and bring to justice those responsible for the tragedy in #Chiapas. https://t.co/UtJ0LuKG2d
– Ambassador Ken Salazar (@USAmbMex) December 12, 2021
The Guatemalan Foreign Minister, Pedro Brolo, asked the United States to “establish human trafficking, or as we commonly call it ‘coyotaje’, as a federal crime that is included in the extradition treaty.”
Mexico urged the United States on Friday to reorient its immigration policy once and for all, favoring investment and not force.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of Mexico, pointed out that “the migratory problem is not solved with coercive measures, but they have to give themselves job opportunities, well-being. People do not leave their towns for pleasure, they do it out of necessity.” He also said that “these misfortunes have to serve to raise awareness and address the underlying problem.”
The president recalled that he has insisted before his US counterpart, Joe Biden, on the need to invest in social programs in Central America to prevent migration, but, according to him, “there is slowness” from the US Congress.
The accident in Chiapas where 55 people died
A trailer carrying 160 undocumented migrants, mostly Central Americans, lost control on a curve at full speed and collided with a pedestrian bridge in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, leaving 55 dead.
The truck driver fled. The victims are mostly from Guatemala, although there were people from Honduras, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Mexico.
Lucrecia Alba Xamine, wife of Celso Pacheco, one of the deceased, said that “he was a day laborer, he worked in the fields. We ate what he earned every day, so he made the decision to travel”, she was one of the survivors of the incident.
The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, lamented the tragedy and said that “immigration alternatives and legal avenues are required to avoid tragedies like this one.”
We deeply regret the accident that occurred today in Chiapas, in which 49 migrants lost their lives and more than 50 were injured. Our sincere condolences to their families. Immigration alternatives and legal avenues are required to avoid tragedies like this one. pic.twitter.com/xm0XGcvGZA
– UNHCR Mexico (@AcnurMexico) December 10, 2021
Trucks are widely used by smuggling networks to bring migrants to the border between the United States and Mexico. People fleeing poverty and violence in their countries are taken for hours in unventilated cabins, they cannot drink water to avoid urinating on the way, many of them suffocate to death.
Some people prefer to cross the country on foot in caravans, subjecting themselves to extreme weather, they are also under threat from drug cartels and organized crime.
About 1.7 million people illegally entered the United States from Mexico between October 2020 and September 2021, an unprecedented number.
With Reuters, AFP and EFE
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