Recommended
The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, plans to travel this Monday to the state of Oaxaca (south) to visit those injured in a train accident that left 13 dead, following the derailment of the Interoceanic train that was inaugurated in 2023.
The train, with 241 passengers and nine crew members on board, derailed on Sunday on its route along the Interoceanic Corridor, which connects the Pacific coast with the Gulf of Mexico, one of the flagship infrastructure projects of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's administration (2018-2024).
Sheinbaum stated in her usual morning press conference that the Attorney General's Office and the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency are conducting 'a rigorous analysis of what happened, what caused this accident.'
The incident occurred at 09:28 local time (15:28 GMT) on the Z line of the Interoceanic railroad, 80 km from the city of Salina Cruz, where it departed.
'One of the locomotives derailed,' which caused four cars to go off the tracks, detailed Secretary of the Navy, Raymundo Morales, this morning.
The first car fell to a depth of 6.5 meters, the second 'remained partially suspended,' and the two remaining cars showed 'no serious damage,' Morales declared from Oaxaca, in a feed broadcast during the president's press conference.
The secretary added that this railroad uses an 'exploratory truck' that travels on the track before the train departs to report failures. In its previous inspection, it was 'reported that the tracks were in good condition,' Morales stated.
Local media published videos from inside a car after the accident, the authenticity of which AFP could not verify, in which groans of passengers asking for help can be heard.
Since its inauguration, the Interoceanic railroad has transported 114,828 travelers, an average of 245 people per trip.
The return of passenger trains in Mexico after several decades was one of the emblems of the López Obrador administration, whose government also launched the controversial Maya Train, which runs through the Yucatán Peninsula (southeast) and has been criticized by environmentalists for cutting through parts of the jungle.
But the priority of the Interoceanic railroad is the transport of goods, as it was conceived by Sheinbaum's mentor and predecessor as an alternative to the Panama Canal.
Since September 2023, it has transported 952,096 tons of cargo, the Secretary of the Navy reported this Monday.
[Publicidad]