EL Espinal, Mexico (AP) — Survivors and families of the victims of the bombing Fatal train crash in southern Mexico The government vowed on Monday to investigate what caused a train to derail a day earlier on a rail line that connects the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
On Sunday, a transoceanic train connecting Oaxaca and Veracruz with 250 people on board derailed on a curve near a town in Oaxaca, killing 13 people, including a teenager. Nearly 110 people were injured.
Video from the scene showed the train carriage falling down a steep hill into dense jungle below, with other carriages also toppling over.
Then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador opened the train line in 2023 as part of a government push to expand rail and connectivity in rural Mexico. Hic’s critics point out that many of the president’s infrastructure projects are built quickly, often dodging regulatory bureaucracies and environmental impact studies.
President Claudia Scheinbaum, López Obrador’s ally and successor, told reporters on Monday that she was traveling to the area and that trains and infrastructure had been operating normally.
“Our first priority is caring for the victims,” she said. “The second is to strictly investigate the cause of the accident.”
A family’s despair
Hector Serrano Garcia was grieving as he gathered with his family at a small funeral home in Oaxaca after his 15-year-old daughter, Luisa, died in the crash.
Luisa’s grandmother, Carmen Garcia, who was also on the train Sunday night, took to social media to plead for help in finding her granddaughter.
“We can’t find her anywhere,” the grandmother said late Sunday night. “Please feel moved, this is my granddaughter.”
Serrano Garcia said the family received the tragic news Monday that Luisa had been killed.
“We have very little information,” he said. “This is very difficult for all families.”
“Things are moving very fast”
Baldo Enríquez Antonio said his wife, Ana Guadalupe Fabre, and their 16-year-old son were on the train, returning home to Veracruz after spending Christmas with relatives in Oaxaca.
He said by phone from a hospital in southern Oaxaca state that they told him the train was “moving very fast on the curve.”
Enriquez Antonio told The Associated Press that Fabre broke several ribs in the crash and that their son suffered a leg injury and a serious gash on his forehead.
Despite his own injuries, their son pulled his mother out of the overturned train car.
Asked about the train’s speed, Sheinbaum said she had seen videos of survivors talking about the train’s speed, but warned “we shouldn’t speculate” and instead let “prosecutors do their job.”
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Clement reported from Tapachula, Mexico. Associated Press writer Megan Janetski in Mexico City contributed to this report.