At Least Six People Killed After Train Derails in Mexico With 300 Undocumented Migrants on Board

At least six people lost their lives and another 22 were injured after "The Beast," the freight train that crosses Mexico from south to north, derailed at dawn on August 25.

According to El País, the accident and subsequent derailing of the train happened at 3 a.m. in the municipality of Huimanguillo, on the border shared by Tabasco and Veracruz in the southeast of Mexico.

Although the number of human losses might increase in the next hours, so far it's been confirmed that six Honduran migrants have lost their lives, the National Migration Institute (INM) stated, according to Mexican newspaper El Universal.

Through a press release, the INM released the names of the migrants that lost their lives: Rubén Gómez Aguilar (27), Félix Ponce Aguizon (58), Gerardo Antonio Sandoval Díaz (23), José Manuel Guerrero Sabillán (20), Darlin Adriel Valle Banegas (19) and Rufino Aguilar Ferrera (22).

The Institute added that eight of the 12 cars that comprised the freight train transported a hundred tons of scrap and steel products each.

On his part, the national coordinator of Civil Protection of the Secretariat of Government (SeGob), Luis Felipe Puente, confirmed that rescue teams and civil protection units arrived at the scene to assist the victims of the accident. On his Twitter account, the public servant released a preliminary list of the people hurt by the accident.

The train, known as "The Beast," travels a long way from the south zone of Mexico to the border with the United States, and is one of the most dangerous routes undocumented migrants face on their journey into American territory. It's one of the most conflictive routes for migrants who suffer the harassment of Mexican drug cartels and mafias that extort and rob the people that cross 13 states of Mexican territory while traveling north.

According to a recent report published by Mexican magazine Proceso, the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement has assisted around 30 people this year so far in reporting crimes before the PGR and the Prosecutor's Office, with no results. However, the number of migrants who are extorted, robbed or raped rarely report crimes to legal authorities.