Mexican railway operator halts trains because of migrants climbing aboard, getting hurt
HUEHUETOCA, Mexico — A Mexican railway operator announced Tuesday that it was temporarily suspending train runs in the northern part of the country because so many migrants were climbing aboard freight cars and getting hurt in the process.
Ferromex said it temporarily ordered a halt to 60 trains carrying enough cargo to fill 1,800 tractor-trailers. It said some international trade would be affected by the stoppage.
In recent days, there have been about a “half-dozen regrettable cases of injuries or deaths” among migrants hopping onto freight cars, the company said in a statement.
The company, owned by conglomerate Grupo Mexico, said some migrants even hopped onto moving freight cars “despite the grave danger that represents.”
“There has been a significant increase in the number of migrants in recent days,” Ferromex said in the statement, adding that it was stopping the trains “to protect the physical safety of the migrants” while it awaited action by authorities to solve the problem.
But the word had yet to trickle down to the migrants themselves, hundreds of whom waited on the tracks and alongside them at a railway yard in Huehuetoca, on the northern outskirts of Mexico City.
Two migrants were found dead and at least 10 were hospitalized after police received a call that they were ‘suffocating’ in a freight train.
Pavel Aguilar Flores, a migrant from Venezuela, was hoping to hop onto a freight train to Matamoros, a dangerous Mexican border city across from Brownsville, Texas.
“We haven’t heard any news,” Aguilar Flores said. “We are going to continue on our journey, and in fact we’re waiting for a train.
“I have heard there have been accidents, but not so many as people say,” he said. “You have to be careful and get on the train when it’s stopped, not when it’s moving.”
In fact, trains were still running through the railyard at Huehuetoca on Tuesday evening, but they weren’t heading where the migrants wanted to go.
As crime engulfs many Mexican states, immigrants who’ve saved to retire there are reevaluating ties to home — and whether returning is worth the risk.
According to Ferromex, the worst problems appeared to be further north.
The company said there were about 1,500 people gathered at a railyard in the city of Torreon, in the northern border state of Coahuila. The company also reported about 800 migrants waiting at the freight yards in Irapuato, in the north-central state of Guanajuato.
About 1,000 people were reported to be riding freight cars on the train line that connects the city of Chihuahua and the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez.
Ferromex is Mexico’s largest concessionary rail operator, and the effects of the train stoppage will be “very important,” said Ana Bertha Gutiérrez, the international trade coordinator for the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness.
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She noted that the measure could badly hit industrial states such as Nuevo Leon, Baja California and Chihuahua, given their links to the U.S. market.
Migrants have long used the trains, known collectively as “The Beast,” to hitch rides from as far south as Oaxaca state to the U.S. border. About a decade ago, the Mexican government briefly staged raids on the trains to discourage the practice, but later largely abandoned the effort.
The announcement comes as migrants are increasingly desperate to reach the U.S. border.
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