By IANS
Oaxaca (Mexico) : 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.