Train accident in southern Mexico leaves at least 13 dead and dozens injured

Mexico City, Mexico — Authorities said a train crash in southern Mexico killed at least 13 people and injured dozens, halting traffic along a rail line that connects the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Interoceanic Train that connects the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz derailed on Sunday when passing a curve near the town of Nizanda.

“The Mexican Navy has informed me that 13 people tragically died in the Interoceanic Train accident,” the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, published in X, adding that 98 people were injured, five of them seriously.

He said that he instructed the Secretary of the Navy and the Undersecretary of Human Rights of the Ministry of the Interior to go to the scene and personally assist the families.

In a Sunday message, Oaxaca state governor Salomón Jara said several government agencies had arrived at the scene of the accident to help the injured.

Authorities said 241 passengers and nine crew members were on the train when the accident occurred.

The Interoceanic Train was inaugurated in 2023 by the then president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The rail service is part of a broader effort to boost rail travel in southern Mexico and develop infrastructure along the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a narrow strip of land between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mexican government plans to turn the isthmus into a strategic corridor for international trade, with ports and railway lines that can connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Currently the Interoceanic train runs from the port of Salina Cruz on the Pacific Ocean to Coatzacoalcos, covering a distance of approximately 180 miles.