Authorities with Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) say an attack on a cargo train carrying hitchhiking migrants through the southern state of Oaxaca left four dead and three others injured on Wednesday. Three were killed by gunman who overtook the train and demanded their money and belongings, while the fourth died after jumping off the train in an attempt to escape. At least one of the three who were shot to death reportedly refused to give up their belongings to the robbers, according to the INM.
The fourth victim has been identified as a Honduran national, while the other three were Mexicans from the southern border state of Chiapas. Only one of the victims, a resident of Tapachula, has been identified by the state justice department. El Diario de Coahila writes that the attack was reported to state and federal authorities by father Alejandro Solalinde, who runs the nearby migrant shelter Hermanos en el Camino. The paper notes that some of the migrants had apparently managed to detain some of the attackers by the time authorities arrived.
About a thousand migrants had been aboard the train when it left the city of Arriaga in Chiapas state early on Wednesday morning. José Alberto Donis, a coordinator at Hermanos en el Camino, told El Diario de Coahila that armed bandits have lately been charging migrants in the area a quota to allow them to board the trains, although the quota does not guarantee their safety as they pass into territory controlled by other groups.
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