LOS ANGELES – The number of migrants who died after being exposed to high temperatures and crowded inside an open truck on Monday in San Antonio (Texas) increased to 53 this Wednesday, mostly Mexicans, according to official sources.
The Bexar County Coroner’s Office, where San Antonio is located, confirmed that the death toll rose to 53, of which 40 are men.
At least 37 of the victims have been identified.
Bexar County authorities are working with the consulates of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to identify the rest of the deceased.
The head of the San Antonio Fire Department, Charles Hood, said at a press conference that “lots of bodies” were found in the truck found late Monday night.
Francisco Garduño, commissioner of the National Migration Institute ation (INM) of Mexico, explained today that the trailer passed through the US immigration checkpoints, where it was captured by security cameras at .50 hours (19.50 GMT) last Monday in Encinal, (Texas).
Which suggests that the immigrants had to remain locked up in the truck for several hours, in what has been considered the greatest tragedy of human trafficking in recent decades in the United States.
The temperature had exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 celsius), explained Hood.
Forty-six migrants were pronounced dead at the scene, and seven of the 16 migrants found alive died after being taken to hospitals.
Of three people who are detainees, two are Mexican, according to what Garduño explained today, who identified them as Juan Fra Francisco and Juan Claudio, without mentioning their surnames.
Both had the same address as the state registration of the truck and during a judicial review weapons were found on them, he elaborated.
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