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Elements of the National Guard (GN) found 121 migrants abandoned in overcrowded conditions in a truck in Nuevo León, a northern Mexican state bordering Texas, on Wednesday.
A citizen complaint about the presence of a badly parked unit on the Matehuala-Saltillo highway led to the location of the migrants, originally from Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Cuba, according to the National Guard.
The events took place at kilometer 129+400 of the highway in the municipality of Galeana, in the south of Nuevo León.
“National Guardsmen went to the place and had contact with the vehicle, dry box type, parked on the shoulder of the road; when they approached they noticed that the operator was not there and heard screams coming from inside the vehicle,” the GN said in a statement.
The security force added that, when the elements opened the door of the unit, they observed several people, including minors, who identified themselves as migrants and did not prove their regular stay in the country.
The people were provided with water and medical attention, in addition to being transferred to a migratory station to make the corresponding arrangements in order to receive consular assistance, define their legal situation, and, if necessary, proceed with their assisted return.
The vehicle in which they were being transported was secured and placed at the disposal of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) in Linares, Nuevo León.
The discovery is reminiscent of last June’s tragedy in San Antonio, Texas, where an abandoned vehicle was found in which migrants of different nationalities were traveling, of which more than 50 died due to the lack of ventilation and the region’s high temperatures.
The region is experiencing a record migratory flow to the United States, whose Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has intercepted more than 1.82 million people so far in the fiscal year 2022, which began last October.
In addition, Mexico received a record 58,000 refugee applications in the first half of 2022, an annual increase of almost 15%, according to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar).
