Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed the deaths of 50 migrants found in an abandoned truck in San Antonio on human smugglers, poverty and a “lack of control” at the U.S-Mexican border, the Express-News reports.
López Obrador’s comments come two months after he criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s enhanced commercial truck inspections at the border, which temporarily slowed U.S.-Mexico trade to a crawl at several key crossings.
So far, 22 of the migrants found in the tractor-trailer rig in San Antonio been identified as being from Mexico, while seven are from Guatemala and two from Honduras. Officials are still working to identify the others, according to the Express-News.
During a Tuesday morning press briefing, López Obrador attributed the tragedy to “poverty and desperation of our Central American brother and of Mexicans,” according to the Express-News.
“It happens because there is trafficking of people and a lack of control, in this case at the Mexican-U.S. border, but also in the U.S. interior,” he added.
López Obrador was an outspoken opponent of an order Abbott handed down in April requiring enhanced inspections of commercial trucks at the border, which the Mexican president called a “despicable way to act.” .
Abbott’s inspections yielded no contraband, and the inspection order was lifted after the Republican governor reached an agreement with Mexican officials to increase border security in some south-of-the-border states.
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This article appears in Jun 15-28, 2022.
