94 migrants escape suffocation in truck in Mexico

Mexico City, July 29

Authorities in Mexico said Thursday that at least 94 migrants had to bash their way out of a suffocating freight trailer abandoned on a highway in the steamy Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

Carlos Enrique Escalante, the head of the state migrant attention office, said migrants had to break holes in the freight container to get out, some apparently through the roof.

Some were injured when they leapt from the roof of the trailer, but their injuries did not include any broken bones and were not considered life-threatening.

Escalante said local residents near the town of Acayucan heard the noise, and helped open the freight container.

A much larger number of migrants were believed to have been aboard and fled after escaping.

But the 94 migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were turned over to immigration authorities.

The discovery of the trailer Wednesday recalled the tragedy in San Antonio, Texas on June 27, when 53 migrants died because they had been left in a sweltering freight truck.

In the southern Mexico state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala, yet another group of migrants continued demanding temporary visas they would permit them to travel across Mexico. They were still in the town of Huixtla on Thursday after leaving Tapachula earlier this week, saying they can’t wait months for slow immigration paperwork in Tapachula. AP