At least 13 people died when a train came off the rails in the Mexican state of Oaxaca on Sunday. President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that another 98 of the 250 people aboard were injured, five of them critically. She planned to fly to Oaxaca that day to meet those affected and “rigorously clarify what caused this accident”.
The train belonged to the Interoceanic line, which crosses the narrowest part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to join the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was conceived as a cargo route rivalling the Panama canal and as a spur to development in the region.
The line was a flagship project of Sheinbaum’s predecessor and ally, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known as Amlo, whose term ended last year. His Mayan Train, a £16bn ($21.6bn) loop of track for tourists and cargo around the whole Yucatán Peninsula, was another. Both were overseen by the Mexican military, whose responsibilities have grown sharply in recent years. Crews worked at double time and managed to open at least part of each line before Amlo left office, which also raised concerns over safety, the Guardian reported.
Sunday’s crash was the third incident on the Interoceanic this year. Earlier in December a train struck a truck at a crossing. The Mayan Train has had two derailments, neither fatal.
Alejandro Moreno, leader of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), called for building and operation of all such projects to stop while a full audit is carried out. “This tragedy … demands immediate answers,” the party wrote on X.
Sheinbaum insisted the train had met every safety requirement. “We will be very responsible in the construction and operation [of these projects], as we have always been,” she said.
