MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - More than 100 Central American migrants, including dozens of minors, were found crowded inside a sweltering truck without food or water in Mexico en route to the United States, authorities said on Friday.

The 136 migrants, from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, were rescued in the violent southeastern state of Veracruz after 24 hours in temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), Mexico’s migration institute INM said.

Tens of thousands of Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty in their homelands aim to pass through Mexico to the United States every year, often transported by human traffickers who subject them to perilous conditions.

More than 800 Central American migrants have been found in truck trailers or safe houses in Mexico so far this year, according to a government document seen by Reuters.

Border apprehensions fell when U.S. President Donald Trump took office last year and vowed to stamp out illegal immigration, suggesting fewer crossing attempts, but have picked up in recent months.

The migrants in Veracruz were discovered by federal police and migration agents who heard cries for help from within the truck, which had been abandoned near a freeway.

Authorities said they counted 49 minors among the group, 13 of whom were traveling alone and will receive aid to apply for refugee status in Mexico. The adults, as well as the accompanied children, will be sent back to their home countries.

Last month, 103 Central Americans, including 36 minors, were rescued from an abandoned truck in the violent northern state of Tamaulipas, where migrants often attempt illegal border crossings.

In July, 10 people died after a truck stuffed with more than 100 Guatemalan and Mexican migrants was abandoned in a Texas parking lot. </s> At least 25 Central American migrants and refugees died and dozens more were injured on Thursday after the truck they were travelling in overturned in southern Mexico, according to authorities.

The Chiapas state prosecutor's office said in a statement late on Thursday that 29 others were injured in the accident. It appears the driver lost control of the truck near the town of Francisco Sarabia in the municipality of Soyalo.

The injured were transported to hospitals. Authorities did not provide the nationalities of the victims, and say the investigation continues.

The truck involved in this accident was carrying an estimated 80 people, said Isidro Hernandez of the local Red Cross. Some who were not injured may have fled.

The fatalities include at least one minor, Hernandez added.

Chiapas is the main entry point for Central American migrants arriving in Mexico from Guatemala.

Every year, thousands of Central Americans, mainly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, attempt dangerous trips through Mexico trying to reach the United States or attempting to find opportunities for work in Mexico.

Many travel in group caravans for safety, while others hire human traffickers who put them in overcrowded trucks with often unsanitary conditions.

Central Americans have told Al Jazeera they are fleeing poverty, violence and political persecution. </s> Mexico's Federal Police intercepted 136 undocumented Central American migrants in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, including 49 minors, the National Migration Institute (INM) said Friday.

The migrants were found in a freight trailer and police arrested the driver. </s> At least 25 Central American migrants were killed and 30 were seriously injured when the truck in which they were riding went off the road yesterday in central Chiapas.

About 80 people were traveling in the three-tonne cargo truck on a highway near the town of Francisco Sarabia when the vehicle left the road and rolled over, according to local Red Cross director Isidro Hernández.

State police and the military secured the scene of the accident to look for injured migrants who might have fled the area to avoid being caught by authorities. Hernández said it was very likely that many others who had not been hurt in the crash had also escaped.

The attorney general’s office said the migrants, mostly from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, crossed into Mexico from Guatemala near La Mesilla, Chiapas.

From there, they traveled via truck on a route seldom used by migrants to central Chiapas.

 Officials said that they had gathered information about the victims in order to contact their families and begin the process of returning their remains to their loved ones.

Though many Central American migrants have been traveling across Mexico in large caravans for safety, many others hire traffickers and are transported in crowded and unsanitary conditions in cargo trucks on their journey north. </s> A truck smuggling a group of Central American migrants crashed in southern Mexico leaving 23 dead and injuring 31 passengers.

The vehicle was traveling on a road connecting the cities of Ixtapa and Soyaló in the state of Chiapas when it allegedly experienced mechanical problems, according to investigators. A young girl was among the dead.

The truck veered out of its lane before flipping and crashing at about 6pm on Thursday, about 155 miles north of the Mexico-Guatemala border.

The southern state of Chiapas borders with Guatemala and has served as a strategic point for Central American migrants heading to the Mexico-United States border.

Thousands continue to descend upon Guatemalan towns and stream across the Mexican borders before continuing the dangerous trek northward in hopes of applying for and being granted asylum by the Trump administration.

The continuous stream of Central American migrants at the southern border entry sites has been a driving force behind President Donald Trump's agenda to demand that congressional leaders approve funding for his multi-billion dollar border wall.

President Trump claimed Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security is apprehending people on the Mexico-U.S. border at a pace that would reach 1 million by the end of 2019.

'We are on track to APPREHEND more than one million people coming across the Southern Border this year,' he said in a tweet.

Images of the accident showed dozens of victims laying on the road and next to the truck.

The victims were part of the latest migrant caravan seeking the American dream, fleeing the poverty and crime that has engulfed the Central America region.

The surviving victims were transported to two local hospitals where they received medical attention.

According to the Mexican Red Cross, the dead and injured victims were Salvadorean and Guatemalan nationals.

Authorities were not able to confirm the exact number of passengers involved in the accident. </s> MEXICO CITY, March 8 (UPI) -- A truck carrying about 50 Central American migrants careened off a highway in southern Mexico Chiapas killing 25 and sending 29 people to hospital.

The accident occurred about 6 p.m. Thursday some 150 miles from Mexico's border with Guatemala. The 3-ton Ford truck did not have license plates, according to a preliminary investigation opened by the Chiapas state prosecutor.

"We lament profoundly the deaths of Central American migrants in this accident," said Maximiliano Reyes Zuniga, a spokesman for Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Relations.

Mexico's Chiapas state shares a border with Guatemala and is a primary route for Central American and migrants from other countries traveling north to reach the United States.

The precise nationalities of the dead and wounded migrants is not yet known.

Dozens of people were strewn around the overturned truck next to the highway, according to local press reports and tweets of photos from the scene.

First responders included Red Cross, civil protection officers and municipal and state police officers.

Migrants in Mexico often face dangerous traveling conditions as they head north. A month ago, Mexican authorities in Chiapas found 234 migrants traveling in what they called "inhuman conditions" in trailers. At the end of last year in the neighboring states of Tabasco and Oaxaca, authorities found more than 200 migrants also traveling in trailers.

Following this latest accident, the government of Chiapas issued a civil protection alert for Central American migrants traveling through the state. </s> A truck packed with Central American migrants swerved off a highway in southern Mexico late Thursday, leaving at least 25 dead and 29 injured, officials said.

The accident happened in Chiapas state which borders Guatemala, the state attorney general’s office said in a statement.

The three-ton truck ran off the road and overturned, it said. Every year thousands of Central Americans, mainly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, attempt dangerous trips through Mexico trying to reach the United States.

Many travel in group caravans for safety, while others hire people traffickers who put them in overcrowded trucks with appalling and sanitary conditions.

In October a caravan with as many as 7,000 people traveled through Mexico all the way to Tijuana on the border with California before eventually disbanding. </s> A U.S.-bound caravan that once totaled more than 3,000 Central American migrants looked to be about a third that size Saturday morning, when its remaining members woke up on a bridge that divides the borders of Guatemala and Mexico and waited to get past a crossing guarded by hundreds of Mexican federal police.Hundreds of migrants have already crossed, some legally, some not. It's unclear whether any have simply turned back.The group had burst through a Guatemalan border fence Friday and rushed onto the crossing over the Suchiate River, defying officials' entreaties for an orderly crossing and U.S. President Donald Trump's threats of retaliation. They were met by a wall of police with riot shields, and only about 50 migrants managed to push their way through before officers unleashed pepper spray. The rest retreated, joining the sea of people on the bridge between both countries.Police and immigration agents began letting small groups of 10, 20 or 30 people through the gates at a time if they wanted to apply for refugee status. Once they filed a claim, they were given the option to go to a shelter to spend the night.Other migrants, tired of waiting, jumped off the bridge into the river on Friday. Some organized a rope brigade to ford its muddy waters or floated across on rafts operated by local residents who usually charge a dollar or two to make the crossing.As dawn broke Saturday, hundreds of migrants awoke amid garbage that had already piled up on the bridge. Without bathrooms, a foul odor wafted through the air.Jose Yanez had slept with no blanket, but vowed to continue."From here, we're going on. From here, there's no turning back," said the 25-year-old farmer, adding that he makes 150 lempiras a day in Honduras, or about $6, and has no work benefits.Other migrants managed to catch rest under tarps and plastic sheets.Alison Danisa wept as she knelt on the ground, clutching her naked 11-month-old infant to her breast."We have suffered so much. She has a fever and we brought nothing," she said, showing the baby's bare bottom to indicate they had no diapers.On Friday, a Mexican marine official with a loudspeaker approached the gate and told migrants they would be taken in trucks to "a humanitarian attention center" in Tapachula, a border city in the Mexican state of Chiapas. But the official did not say when this would happen.Later in the night, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said in an address to the nation that a large group of migrants had "tried to enter Mexican territory irregularly, attacking and even hurting some elements of the federal police.""Mexico does not permit and will not permit entry into its territory in an irregular fashion, much less in a violent fashion," he said.Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez tweeted late Friday that he spoke with his Guatemalan counterpart, Jimmy Morales, and asked permission to send Honduran civil protection personnel to the bridge to help the migrants."I also asked authorization to hire ground transportation for anyone who wants to return and an air bridge for special cases of women, children, the elderly and the sick," Hernandez tweeted.Hernandez and Morales are expected to meet in Guatemala on Saturday to discuss the situation.Acner Adolfo Rodriguez, 30, one of the last migrants through the breached Guatemala border fence, said he hoped to find work and a better life far from the widespread poverty and gang violence in Honduras, one of the world's deadliest countries."May Trump's heart be touched so he lets us through," Rodriguez said.The U.S. president has made it clear to Mexico that he is monitoring its response. On Thursday, he threatened to close the U.S. border if Mexico didn't stop the caravan. Later that day he tweeted a video of Mexican federal police deploying at the Guatemalan border and wrote: "Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!"Mexican officials said those with passports and valid visas - only a tiny minority of those trying to cross - would be let in immediately.Migrants who want to apply for refuge in Mexico were welcome to do so, they said, but any who decide to cross illegally and are caught will be detained and deported.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Friday with Pena Nieto and Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Videgaray in Mexico City, with the caravan high on the agenda.At a news conference with Videgaray, Pompeo called illegal migration a "crisis" and emphasized "the importance of stopping this flow before it reaches the U.S. border," while also acknowledging Mexico's right to handle the crisis in a sovereign fashion."Mexico will make its decision," Pompeo said. "Its leaders and its people will decide the best way to achieve what I believe are our shared objectives."At Mexico City's airport before leaving, Pompeo said four Mexican federal police officers had been injured in the border standoff and expressed his sympathy.On Thursday, Videgaray asked the U.N. for help processing what Mexico expects to be a large number of asylum requests.Migrants have banded together to travel en masse regularly in recent years, but this caravan was unusual for its huge size, said Victor Clark Alfaro, a Latin American studies professor at San Diego State University. By comparison, a caravan in April that also attracted Trump's ire numbered about 1,000."It grabs one's attention that the number of people in these kinds of caravans is on the rise," Clark Alfaro said. "It is migration of a different dimension."Elizabeth Oglesby, a professor at the University of Arizona's Center for Latin American Studies, said people join caravans like this because it's a way to make the journey in a relatively safe manner and avoid having to pay thousands of dollars to smugglers. She disputed Pompeo's assertion that that there is a "crisis" of migration."The border is not in crisis. This is not a migration crisis. ... Yes, we are seeing some spikes in Central Americans crossing the border, but overall migration is at a 40-year low," Oglesby said.Speaking on the Televisa network, Videgaray did not seem concerned about Trump's threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it had to be viewed in light of the hotly contested U.S. midterm elections, in which Trump has made border security a major campaign issue.Videgaray noted that 1 million people transit the border legally every day, and about $1 million in commerce crosses every minute."Before taking decisions of that kind," Videgaray said, "there would be many people in the United States ... who would consider the consequences." </s> About 80% of them are from Honduras. Many said they are fleeing poverty, but also political unrest and violence that followed the swearing in of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez after a highly contested election last year. The group often breaks into chants of "Out with JOH." They also chant "we aren't immigrants, we're international workers" and "the people united will never be defeated."

The number of people who showed up to travel with the caravan caught organizers by surprise, and overwhelmed the various towns they've stopped in to spend the night. Pueblos Sin Fronteras counted about 1,200 people on the first day.

When they get to the US, they hope American authorities will grant them asylum or, for some, be absent when they attempt to cross the border illegally. More likely is that it will set up an enormous challenge to the Trump administration's immigration policies and its ability to deal with an organized group of migrants numbering in the hundreds.

"If we all protect each other we'll get through this together," Abeja yelled through a loudspeaker on the morning they left Tapachula, on Mexico's border with Guatemala, for the nearly monthlong trek.

Organizers like Rodrigo Abeja hope that the sheer size of the crowd will give immigration authorities and criminals pause before trying to stop them.

Organized by a group of volunteers called Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, the caravan is intended to help migrants safely reach the United States, not only bypassing authorities who would seek to deport them, but gangs and cartels who are known to assault vulnerable migrants.

For five days now hundreds of Central Americans — children, women and men, most of them from Honduras — have boldly crossed immigration check points, military bases, and police in a desperate, sometimes chaotic march toward the United States. Despite being in Mexico without authorization, no one has made any effort to stop them.

When the agent, who'd covered her uniform with an orange and white shawl, learned that the Central Americans migrants heading her way numbered more than 1,000, she took off for the restaurant across the street.

Taking a drag from her cigarette, a Mexican immigration agent looked out toward a caravan of migrants that grew larger with each step they took on the two-lane highway.

Migrants hitchhike along the side of the highway as they move towards the city of Mapastepec, Chiapas.

Sweating after miles of walking in more than 90-degree heat with her two kids, Karen said conditions in Honduras were so bad she decided to take a chance with the caravan. She declined to give her full name.



"The crime rate is horrible you can't live there," Karen told BuzzFeed News on the side of a highway near Huixtla, a town in Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. "After the president (was sworn in) it got worse. There were deaths, mobs, robbed homes, adults and kids were beaten up."

Before setting foot on the journey, the migrants were organized into groups of 10 to 15 people, and a leader was designated for each group. Five groups were then banded together in what organizers call a sector. While there are organizers from Pueblos Sin Fronteras leading the way, much of the effort to get to the US border is in the hands of the migrants themselves.

They've been organized into security, food, and logistics committees. Organizers say it's meant to help the migrants empower themselves.

Sandra Perez, 40, who's also from Honduras, is one of two women who belong to the security committee. It's not her first caravan, she has traveled with a procession of Central American mothers through Mexico in search of disappeared migrants.

"I like doing this, it makes me happy and I feel useful," she told BuzzFeed News.

Twenty-nine-year old Mateo Juan said the caravan was his third attempt at getting to the United States. Seven months ago, Mexican immigration officers pulled him off the bus. The same happened about a month ago.

He heard about the caravan in March when he arrived in Tapachula, the caravan's starting point.

"Going alone is risky, you're risking an accident, getting jumped by robbers, and even your life," he told BuzzFeed News. "All of that, and then you don't get to the United States. The caravan is slower but you know you're going to get there safely."

Still, there are no guarantees on the route or assurances that once they reach the US border they'll be able to cross undetected or be allowed to stay under some type of protection like asylum.

Alex Mensing, another organizer with Pueblos Sin Fronteras, made that point clear to the migrants before the group started out. He also stressed that everyone is responsible for their own food, water, and payment for vans or buses. Still, it's far cheaper than being assaulted or falling into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers.

"I'm here to work together with the people who had to leave their countries for whatever reason," Mensing said through a loudspeaker. "We're fighting together. We're not here to give anyone papers and we're not here to give anyone food."

Mensing said Pueblos Sin Fronteras isn't calling on people to make the trek, but if they're going to try to go through Mexico on the way to the United States, the group will help them.

The caravan propels itself forward using whatever way it can. Sometimes that means packing into the back of a truck, negotiating lower rates for vans, or hitching a ride on the back of empty big rigs from whatever town they're in. The group sleeps in town plazas. Local townspeople and churches feed them.

In the evening, when the group settles in for the night, the kids play in playgrounds or dart among the crowd, chasing each other. Teenagers and adults play soccer using rocks as goal posts.

On Tuesday, the caravan had plans to board the freight train known as "The Beast" or sometimes "The Train of Death" in Arriaga to speed the journey north. It's a dangerous part of the journey, with death and injury only too possible from a precarious perch atop a rail car, and the group practiced boarding, one woman in a purple shirt slowly making her way up a parked train's ladder while the crowd below cheered her on. On another train car, men wearing backpacks steadily made their way up one by one.
Mexican federal police and migration agents find 136 migrants in a locked truck abandoned near a freeway in Veracruz. Without water or food, the people from the countries of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, including dozens of minors, were en route to the United States.