Eleven people, including nine Cuban migrants, died on Saturday in a collision between a truck, a motorcycle and a truck on a route in western Guatemala, authorities reported. The accident occurred early in the morning on a highway in the department of Suchitepéquez, about 120 km from the Guatemalan capital.
At the scene of the accident “the death of nine people on site was reported, while three others were taken to healthcare centers, two of them dying on arrival,” said the Prosecutor’s Office in the town of San Bautista.
“It was determined that of the 11 dead, 9 were Cuban nationals and 2 Guatemalans,” specified that Prosecutor’s Office in a report.
“The preliminary version is that the agricultural vehicle [truck], carrying the migrants, crashed into the motorcycle and truck trailer,” said for its part the Guatemalan Immigration Institute in a note sent to the media.
According to information from Immigration, the migrants “were crossing [Guatemalan] territory on their way to the United States. “Three women are among the dead migrants, according to the authority. The dead Guatemalans are the drivers of the truck and motorcycle, it added. A wounded migrant remains in the hospital in the nearby city of Tiquisate, according to representatives from Immigration.
The volunteer firefighters’ spokesman in the area, Óscar Sánchez, specified that the accident occurred at kilometer 133 of the route connecting the Guatemalan capital with the Pacific Ocean.
Central America is a transit route for thousands of migrants from South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia traveling to the United States in search of a better life.
More than half a million of these travelers, mostly Venezuelans, entered the isthmus in 2023 crossing the dangerous Darién jungle on the border between Colombia and Panama, but others arrived in Central America legally or illegally from Caribbean islands.
