By Isabel Woodford
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Some cargo trains run by Mexico’s Ferromex have restarted after they were halted following a spate of serious injuries and fatalities to migrants traveling on them, the rail operator’s parent company said on Wednesday.
In a step Mexico’s president described as “unusual,” Ferromex issued a statement on Tuesday saying it had temporarily suspended operations of 60 northbound trains after about half a dozen migrants suffered death or injury in recent days.
On Wednesday, Ferromex owner Grupo Mexico said rail freight operations had been restarted on routes where no “heightened risk” had been identified. The company did not say how many trains were still not operational.
Grupo Mexico said it would continue evaluating the situation and was in touch with authorities over how it proceeded.
For years, migrants trying to reach the United States have crisscrossed Mexico on cargo trains. Collectively, such trains have become known as “La Bestia” (The Beast) due to the risk of injury, even death, if people fall off them.
In April, Mexican media reported a Venezuelan migrant was found dead on the tracks after apparently falling from one in eastern Mexico. In June, a migrant was reported to have died after falling from a train in the northern state of Durango.
On Tuesday, Ferromex said the presence of migrants in its railcars and rail yards had grown significantly in recent days to more than 4,000 in several cities throughout Mexico.
Grupo Mexico underlined that the cargo train suspensions were temporary and only applied to some heading north, particularly from the northern city of Torreon. Southbound trains were not affected, it said.
Earlier on Wednesday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador flagged that trains were restarting after calling Tuesday’s announcement by Ferromex “strange” and “unusual.”
Lopez Obrador has clashed with Grupo Mexico this year, and in May moved to expropriate some tracks the company controls in southern Mexico for a flagship infrastructure project.
(Reporting by Raul Cortes Fernandez and Isabel Woodford; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Dave Graham, Alexandra Hudson and Richard Chang)
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