Mexican authorities reported this Sunday that at least 13 people died after an interoceanic train with 250 people on board derailed in the southern state of Oaxaca.
The Mexican navy said the accident occurred near the town of Nizanda. The train was carrying nine crew members and 241 passengers.
Of the passengers and crew, 139 were out of danger, while 98 were injured, of whom 36 received medical treatment.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said on X that five of the injured were in serious condition and added that authorities had been sent to the scene to provide assistance to the victims’ families.
Oaxaca Governor Salomón Jara Cruz expressed condolences to the families of the accident victims and said state authorities are coordinating their actions with federal agencies to help those affected.
Mexico’s attorney general’s office has already opened an investigation into the accident, Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos said in a social media post.
The Interoceanic Train, inaugurated in 2023 under the government of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is part of the broader Interoceanic Corridor project.
The initiative aimed to modernize the rail link across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, connecting the Mexican port of Salina Cruz on the Pacific to Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf of Mexico coast.
The Mexican government seeks to develop the isthmus as a strategic trade corridor, developing ports, railways and industrial infrastructure with the aim of creating a route capable of competing with the Panama Canal.
The rail service is also part of a broader effort to expand passenger and freight rail transportation in southern Mexico and spur economic development in the region.
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