Accident in Chiapas: "When I got up, there were people thrown everywhere, I saw shattered people, shouting"

Menos de 24 horas después de que México viviera una de sus peores tragedias con migrantes de los últimos años, en el lugar del suceso apenas se perciben señales de las imágenes dantescas vistas poco antes.

The truck that crashed Thursday with more than 160 migrant people overcrowded and that caused the death of at least 55 of them was removed a few hours after the road near Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital of the state of Chiapas, in the southeast from the country.

On the scene only the tire marks are observed in the pronounced curve in which the trailer driver lost control due to apparent speeding and crashed into a bridge.

On the shore of the road, however, a small memorial improvised by the residents of the area reminds the victims in the form of candles, crosses and bottles of water and energy drinks, which most crave migrants in their journey to the United StatesAnd that perhaps better can describe the suffering and hardness of their trip.

«I heard the impact, we came running and we came across that frightful scene.Of pieces of people, women shouting, children ... very cruel, very sad.I never saw anything like, ”he says about the sinister Rodolfo Carillo, a resident of the area.

He was one of the neighbors who arrived at the scene of the accident before emergency services and did not hesitate to help the victims.«There were many wounded and we took them out, between jets of blood.Some with broken legs, others with the arms ... », he remembers moved.

Roberto, another warning witness, says he saw the trailer driver - who is still in an unknown whereabouts after running out - "getting totally hurt, in a state of shock, fleeing".

«But the worst is the people who come to the prey, to sculpt the dead instead of helping them.The first police officers were just recording the morbidity to upload it to social networks.I did not give that time: I came to help, which is what a human being should do, ”he criticizes angry.

"Everything got black"

The majority of migrants traveling aboard the trailer had been fleeing from the poverty and violence of Central America, especially Guatemala.

From there the family of two of the hundred people injured in the incident has just arrived this Friday.One of his two injured nephews is at the Gómez Maza Hospital in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where the most serious injured were admitted, and in whose door the woman expects patiently news.

«I learned what had happened to the news, and I came here.They have not let me in to see them yet, I have no information, but thank God they are alive, ”says the woman who prefers not to reveal her name, much less details of the trip of her nephews, unless there are two brothers of 23 and27 years, natives of Huehuetenango, whose goal was to reach the USA.UU.

Meanwhile, at the Red Cross Clinic of the municipality accustomed to receiving patients victims of minor aggressions or diagnoses, they face how dozens of the mild injuries of the accident can have to attend Thursday.

Fesigated by heat, some rest on mats on the ground in the absence of beds.Many have bandaged an arm, a foot or part of the head by the wounds suffered.

In spite of everything, some still have the strength to remember what happened and underline what led them to ride in that trailer: reach the USA.UU., whatever coasta.

«I was sitting, almost asleep among many people.When he overturned, everything got black and I only saw that everything turned.At the moment I saw a light, I opened my eyes and was about 50 meters from the trailer.I don't know how I got out of there, if I flown ... I don't remember it, ”says Emerson Morales, a 23 -year -old from Chichicastenango.

"When I got up, there were people thrown everywhere, shouting ... I saw iteing people, shattered, I saw one with the arm on the other side ... I have blows, but thank God I am fine," he tells BBC Mundo.

The search for missing

He is lying on a bed with a collar, but much more than his injuries worries him to know what was from his cousin, who also traveled in the truck.

«I saw him lying [after the accident], I tried to write his name and mine on a piece of paper that I put in his pants because they already brought me here, but so far he does not appear in the list of names, we are trying to locate him», Says without losing hope.

The Mexican authorities suspect that some of the injured in the accident fled the place and remain hidden in fear that they can be arrested and deported to their country.

Emerson is the only male among the four children of his parents and ensures that this makes him feel the responsibility of having to look for a better life for his family.That is why I tried to get to New York, where he knows that life is not easy, but he believes that "it is possible to work and make money, and that helps enough".

In Guatemala, he works at a call center for the minimum salary that says he barely gives him options to maintain himself.

«Many we are born in poverty and want to have opportunities to work to improve life.Therefore, the dream of getting there was present, for us and our relatives.It didn't matter what happened, our goal was to arrive, ”he acknowledges.

In the past he already tried the dangerous road to the north, but he was arrested in Mexico.Now he had tried again from Guatemala with a small group.

On the border with Mexico it is easy to find many people in the same situation that seek the help of migrant traffickers who promise to take them to the US.UU.In exchange for «an average of between 80 and 100.000 Quetzales (US $ 10.300 to US $ 13.000) ».

When they left their country they took them to "a closed place, with many people" in the middle of the night, so he doesn't even know where they were.The next day they set them up in the tragedy trailer, with which they intended to arrive in Puebla, in Mexico.

"The militarized migration containment policy shores that migrants seek more dangerous routes, generating tragedies like this," criticized the NGO Centro Prodh in reference to the Mexican government's strategy to stop the passage of migrants through their territory."Migratory alternatives and legal routes are required to avoid tragedies such as this," said UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency.

For its part, Mexico, EE.UU.And some countries in Central America and South America announced this Friday the creation of an immediate action group against the networks of traffickers of people operating in the continent, which they pointed out as responsible for the accident.

Citizen solidarity

In the room adjacent to that of Emerson, a couple also recovers from their wounds and burns.She is Mexican and the Colombian: they did not go in the trailer, but traveled on a motorcycle just behind him and became collateral victims of the tragedy.

«The images were very strong.We saw the people out of the inside, the screams were heard.

It is not the same to see it in person to see it on television, ”says Melody Ramírez, a neighbor of Tuxtla, only 17 who expects his fractured ankle.

His partner Bryan Hernández, also migrant, knows very well what moved so many people to get into that trailer.«People seek dignity, not all have the same fate where we are born.They also have the right to a better life, and nobody leaves their home for pleasure, ”he says from the same bed he shares with Melody.

Attention to all injured is possible in this clinic thanks to a large group of volunteers and medical equipment that has not stopped working since Thursday night.

But also thanks to donations from the population of Tluxtla that, although it is more than accustomed to the passage of migrants through its locality as part of one of the routes towards the USA.UU., has turned to the victims of this accident.

«We understand that what has happened is due to abusive people, but injured people are not to blame and need our help,” says BBC Mundo Luis Enrique, a young man who brings bags of clothing, food and hygiene products to theClinic after using their Facebook group of "Chiapanecos Memes" to call their followers to make donations.

«This is our reality of every day, we see migrants pass through here all the time, but seeing that something so serious happened is like a blow to a problem that many try to ignore or minimize.Tragedies like this make us realize the magnitude of the problem ».

Of the 34 injured who were admitted on Thursday at this Red Cross Medical Center, on Friday night there were 24.Alta dice were carried by migration authorities to a shelter.

According to the Mexican government, the survivors of the accident can obtain "humanitarian visas" to remain in the country if they wish.

But Emerson, whose only concern is to find his cousin, is not clear about him in the future.

«The authorities have not told us what will happen to us, if we stay, if they deport us ... but if they offer me stay here, I think I will return to Guatemala because the situation in Mexico is similar when living and earning money.That is why my idea was to get to the USA.UU », insists.

Next to him, a young Guatemalate sitting in a mat that listens to his words intervenes to demonstrate that he is not willing to throw away his "American dream".

"And here we are very close to Guatemala?" He asks journalists.«There is no way to follow the way for the USA.UU., TRUE?".