At least 15 killed after a bus carrying mostly migrants crashes in Mexico

At least 15 people were killed when a crowded bus carrying primarily Venezuelan migrants and asylum seekers collided with a trailer on a highway in Mexico on Tuesday.

The crash is the latest tragedy to unfold on the country’s highways, where road conditions can be perilous and organised crime can hold sway over certain routes.Tuesday’s collision occurred on a highway connecting the states of Puebla and Oaxaca, a route known to be used by migrant smugglers. At least 36 others were injured, according to the Puebla government.

The identities of those killed — and whether they were all from Venezuela — were not immediately clear in the wake of the incident, though government sources indicated that most of the passengers were from that country.

Oaxaca Governor Salomon Jara Cruz said he had instructed authorities to provide support to the injured.

“We send a hug and our condolences to the families of the deceased,” he wrote on social media.Road accidents and unsafe transport have become a leading cause of death for migrants and asylum seekers attempting to travel from Mexico’s southern border to the United States. Smugglers often use unsafe vehicles, packed to the brim with travellers.

Tuesday’s deadly collision comes just weeks after 18 people were killed on August 3, when a bus carrying migrants plummeted into a ravine in the northwestern state of Nayarit.

In July, another bus — this time in Oaxaca — plunged off a steep road, killing as many as 27 people. Another 18 people were killed in a crash in April. And in February, migrants from Venezuela, Colombia, and Central America were involved in a bus crash between Oaxaca and Puebla that left at least 17 dead.

One of the deadliest incidents in recent years came in December 2021, when a trailer carrying 160 migrants crashed into a pedestrian bridge in the southern state of Chiapas. That collision left 56 people — mostly Guatemalan citizens — dead.