Three people have died after a people -smuggling boat capsized off the coast of eastern Mexico, according to authorities.
Four others were rescued after the eight-metre (25-foot) vessel capsized on Monday off a part of Veracruz state where the Tonala river meets the Gulf of Mexico, according to Governor Cuitlahuac Garcia. Those rescued included a 12-year-old boy. Four others were missing following the accident.Authorities said those who drowned and those rescued were migrants from Honduras.
“They retrieved three bodies. The four survivors report that there are four missing,” David Esparza Diaz, the civil protection chief of the Agua Dulce municipality, told the AFP news agency.
Also on Monday, a 36-year-old father and his seven-year-old son were found dead in the Suchiate river, which marks the border between Mexico and Guatemala. The pair were from El Salvador, according to Mexico’s national immigration institute. Their bodies were set to be turned over to El Salvador on Tuesday.
Tens of thousands of people migrate from Central America through Mexico every year, often bound for the southern border of the US. They continue to make the journey despite tightened border inspections by Mexican authorities along the Guatemalan border.
Increased restrictions force many to undertake increasingly treacherous journeys, often with the aid of smugglers, through waterways or in crowded smuggling vehicles.
Monday’s incidents followed the deaths of four people a day earlier being transported in the back of a cargo truck in township of San Juan Chamula. Sixteen others were injured when the vehicle was involved in a collision.
