Mexican navy finds shipwreck survivor, recovers 15 bodies
IANS Monday 22nd October, 2007
The Mexican navy has rescued a second survivor and recovered 15 bodies
from a boat that capsized off the coast of the southern state of Oaxaca
while carrying 26 illegal Central American migrants, the Marine
Secretariat said.
The secretariat said that once word was received that a vessel had gone
down 'transporting 26 suspected undocumented immigrants off the coast of
the municipality of San Francisco del Mar, Oaxaca, navy personnel
initiated search, rescue and recovery operations by air, sea and land.'
The navy said the bodies were recovered in the towns of Rancho Nuevo de
la Cruz, San Francisco del Mar and Playa Aguachil, according to the
Spanish news agency EFE.
The shipwreck was caused by overloading, bad weather and the small size
of the boat, said the navy, adding that operations to find the nine
people still believed missing were continuing.
State officials said the shipwreck victims had not been identified.
Between 100 and 150 illegal Central American immigrants cross through
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec each day, according to the National Migration
Institute's Oaxaca office, on a journey that they hope will eventually
take them to the US.
Friday's tragedy was the worst of its kind in this area since two motor
boats capsized on July 2, 1999 in a storm off the coasts of Oaxaca and
Chiapas, killing dozens of Central American migrants.
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