“Right now we have processed 46 bodies,” San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood told reporters. The official indicated that 16 people – 12 adults and four children – had been taken to the hospital.
“The patients we saw were hot to the touch, suffering from heat stroke and heat exhaustion as there was no sign of water in the vehicle. It was a refrigerated truck, but there is no evidence that there was a working air conditioning unit,” he added.
The authorities reported that there are three people detained for the incident.
Politics
President Joe Biden was briefed yesterday, the White House said. “We are closely monitoring” the “absolutely horrific and disheartening” information, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the NATO summit in Madrid.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican who advocates a hard line on immigration, launched a strong attack on the president, blaming him for his “deadly open border policies.” “These deaths weigh on Biden,” he wrote on Twitter.
His Democratic challenger in the November election, Beto O’Rourke, urged “urgent action” in the aftermath of the incident, calling for “dismantling human trafficking networks and replacing them with expanded avenues for legal migration” that reflect the values and country needs.
The foreign minister of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, described the incident as “tragedy” and said that the Mexican consul was on his way to the scene. The official specified that among the fatalities there are 22 Mexicans, seven Guatemalans and two Hondurans, while the rest were still in the process of identification.
The mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nirenberg, said that “we hope that those responsible for putting these people in inhumane conditions”, that is, human traffickers, “will be prosecuted with the full weight of the law.”
Pope Francis yesterday expressed his “pain” for the migrant tragedies, referring to this drama and the death of dozens of people last week trying to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla.
common pattern
San Antonio, located about 250 km from the border, is a key route for smugglers. The city has also been hit by a recent record heat wave that saw temperatures of 39.5C on Monday.
The vehicle was found on a highway near I-35, which runs straight to the Mexican border. The investigation of the event was delegated to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which indicated in a statement that it launched an investigation for “alleged human trafficking.”
Trucks like the one found in San Antonio are a means of transportation widely used by migrants seeking to enter the United States. The journey is extremely dangerous, especially since vehicles of this type do not usually have ventilation or cooling systems.
San Antonio suffered a similar tragedy in 2017, when 10 people suffocated in a container traveling to the United States with damaged air conditioning and clogged vents. The driver was sentenced in April 2018 to life in prison without the option of parole.
Source: Ambito
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