The death by suffocation of at least 50 migrants in a trailer in Texas has starred in the morning press conference of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday. The president has begun his appearance by expressing his condolences to the families of the migrants. “It is a tremendous misfortune,” said López Obrador. “We are supporting. Our consul and immigration officials have been here since yesterday. We are going to be attentive to support the families and, of course, to do the investigation”, he added.
The president has also reported that his appointment with the president of the United States, Joe Biden, will be on July 12, in Washington. The criminal networks that take advantage of migratory flows will be a central theme at the meeting, he has emphasized. “It is a basic issue to deal with. We have been proposing it, but it is necessary. This case is bitter proof that we must continue to insist on supporting people so that they do not have to leave their villages to go look for a visa on the other side of the border”, he pointed out.
López Obrador added: “These unfortunate events have, of course, to do with the situation of poverty, desperation, of Central American and Mexican brothers… They happen because there is also human trafficking and a lack of controls, in this case on the border of Mexico with the US and within that country. We will be reporting on this.”
Deaths and murders of migrants in transit are common in Mexico. In December, 55 people traveling on board a trailer died in an accident in Chiapas. Most were citizens of Guatemala. In January, 19 were killed by police in the northern state of Tamaulipas, a few kilometers from the border.
Also in the United States, authorities often find migrants crammed into trucks. In 2017, Texas police located 23 people in the bed of a trailer outside El Paso, along the border, across from Ciudad Juárez.
subscribe here to newsletter of EL PAÍS Mexico and receive all the informative keys of the current affairs of this country
