24 bodies found on southern Mexico beach
www.chinaview.cn 2007-10-20 17:45:25 Print
BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- The bodies of 24 people were found on a beach Friday in southern Mexico after emergency officials received reports a boat carrying Central American migrants capsized during stormy weather, a state official said.
Mexican authorities were searching the waters for more bodies around the coastal town of San Francisco del Mar, 200 miles up the coast from the Guatemalan border.
"This morning, we got a report that a vessel carrying undocumented migrants had capsized or gone down," said Sergio Segreste, Oaxaca state public safety secretary. "The assumption is that the cause of the accident was the rough weather."
Later Friday, Segreste said authorities had found two bodies in the Oaxacan community of Pueblo Viejo based on information from a woman who said she had survived the wreck. The woman said about 26 passengers had been aboard the boat, Segreste said.
Segreste said the local government in San Francisco del Mar reported it had found 22 more bodies on the shore. But he added that public safety officers hadn't been able to access the area because two rivers had flooded there.
If confirmed to be migrants, it could be evidence that smugglers are increasingly turning to boats to transport Central Americans through Mexico to avoid highway checkpoints.
Many illegal migrants have been stranded and looking for other ways north since service was interrupted this year on two railway lines they once used to hitch rides north on freight trains.
In August, thousands of U.S.-bound Central American migrants found themselves stranded near the Guatemala border after Connecticut-based Genesee & Wyoming Inc. withdrew from a 30-year concession to operate the Chiapas-Mayab line. For decades, migrants had relied on the train to carry them from to the U.S./Mexico border.
(Agencies)
Geez you got to wonder what they were thinking when they knew they were screwed poor bastards.
