Wednesday, May 18, 2011

MEXICO'S BIGGEST EXPORTS - DRUGS, POVERTY, PREGNANT WOMEN, OR MORE ILLEGALS?

513 U.S.-Bound Migrants Are Found on 2 Trucks in MexicoBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Published: May 17, 2011

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LinkedinDiggMySpacePermalink. TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ, Mexico (AP) — The police in Chiapas State in southern Mexico found 513 migrants on Tuesday inside two trailer trucks bound for the United States, in what the authorities said were dangerously crowded conditions.



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Government of Chiapas, via European Pressphoto Agency

A handout photograph provided by the Government of Chiapas shows the x-ray view of the inside of a truck where some of the 513 illegal immigrants were found.

Some of the migrants had dehydration after traveling for hours clinging to cargo nets inside the containers to remain upright as the trucks bounced along from the Guatemalan border.



The trucks had air holes punched in the floors, but migrants interviewed at the state prosecutors’ office said they had lacked air and water.



The trucks were bound for the central Mexican city of Puebla. There, the migrants said they had been told, they were to be loaded aboard a second set of vehicles for the trip to the border with the United States.



“We were suffering, it was very hot and we were clinging to the ropes,” said Mario, 23, a Honduran who identified himself only by his first name out of concern for his safety.



The National Human Rights Commission of Mexico says thousands of undocumented migrants are kidnapped and held for ransom by drug gangs in Mexico each year.



None of the migrants would say whether any drug gang had been involved in their mass smuggling arrangement.



State police officers discovered the migrants early Tuesday using X-ray equipment at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Tuxtla Gutiérrez.



The migrants said the smugglers charged them about $7,000 each.



The police arrested four people accused of smuggling the migrants, who were from Central and South America and Asia, Chiapas State prosecutors said in a statement

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