8/26/13, "Deadly Mexico train derailment blamed on stolen nails," BBC
"Local officials in the
southern Mexican state of Tabasco have blamed missing nails in the track
for a train derailment which has killed at least six people.
Eight of the cargo train's 12 carriages came off the tracks on Sunday. Twenty-two people were injured in the accident near Huimanguillo.
Tens of thousands of migrants board the train, known as La Bestia, or the Beast, each year in their attempt to reach the United States in search of better living conditions.
Rescue workers fear more people may still be trapped beneath the carriages. It is not known exactly how many migrants may have been on the train's roof or clinging to its sides at the time of the accident.
Local residents said they had seen some 200 people climb aboard at a nearby stop.
Hundreds die or lose limbs each year as they fall off the train and get caught under its wheels. Three of the dead in Sunday's accident were Honduran citizens....
Heavy rain further washed away some of the underlying soil, causing the tracks to shift, the workers told local official Andres Dominguez Aguilar.
Tabasco state governor Arturo Nunez said the train's heavy load of scrap metal also may have caused the tracks to sink in the wet ground."...
BBC caption, "It is not known how many migrants may have been clinging to the train."
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8/25/13, "Mexican cargo train derails; at least 5 killed," CNN, by Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
"Mexico no longer has a nationwide passenger rail system, but thousands of Central American migrants hitch rides on freight trains heading north toward the United States.
On the train, nicknamed "The Beast" and "the train of death," they often huddle on rooftops and cram into spare spaces between cars.
All of those who died or were hospitalized after Sunday's derailment are Honduran, officials said."...
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UN official accused Mexican government officials of bribing and kidnapping migrants riding on cargo trains on multiple occasions:
1/21/2011, "UN calls for Mexico probe into migrant train abductions," BBC
"The UN human rights chief
has urged Mexico to investigate the possible involvement of officials
in the abduction of about 40 migrants.
The train was first stopped by police and migration officials, who arrested 92 of the 250 migrants who had been stowed away.
The driver of the government-run train then took money from about 150 who re-boarded, the statement says, but he also allegedly warned of "more problems ahead" as he had not been happy with what they had paid him.
Shortly afterwards, gunmen seized the train, robbing the migrants and kidnapping 40 of them, including at least 10 women and a child....
"The Mexican authorities need to ascertain whether or not any state officials ... were complicit with the criminal organisation that carried out the abductions and extortion, both in this and other cases," she added."...
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8/26/13, "Mexico Migrant Train Derails; Death Toll May Rise," AP via NPR
"Thousands of migrants ride the roofs of the train cars on their way north each year, braving brutal conditions for a chance at crossing into the United States.
The Tabasco state government said at least 250 Honduran migrants were on the train heading north from the Guatemala border."...
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Comment: If Americans weren't so mean this wouldn't be happening.
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