The Attorney General's Office of the Republic (FGR) of Mexico revealed that it has begun interviewing the victims of the Transístmico train that derailed on Sunday morning in the state of Oaxaca. The incident caused the death of 13 people and forced the suspension of service on Line Z, which runs from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, to the Oaxacan municipality of Salina Cruz. In a statement, the federal Prosecutor's Office added that the interviews are part of the proceedings being carried out at the accident site to try to clarify the derailment, which occurred on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor, a project that was inaugurated just two years ago, on December 22, 2023. The FGR stated that upon learning of the facts, it deployed Federal Public Ministry agents, ministerial federal police, and experts from the Criminal Investigation Agency to integrate the corresponding investigation file.
The expert work includes specialists in photography and forensic medicine, field criminalistics, civil engineering and architecture, chemistry, forensic industrial safety, and land transport, who have been working at the site since Sunday to gather evidence and prepare technical reports that will allow determining the causes of the accident. Among the proceedings carried out so far are the securing of the area, interviews with witnesses and victims, inspections of the scene and the train involved, as well as the collection of physical evidence. 'The priority of the Attorney General's Office of the Republic is to clarify the causes of what happened to know the truth of the facts, through a professional investigation with scientific rigor, that places the victims at the center,' the institution emphasized, adding that it will inform the public as the investigation progresses.
According to the agency, coordination was established with the Attorney General's Office for Justice of the State of Oaxaca, as well as with federal and local authorities such as the state Government Secretariat, Civil Protection, the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT), the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency, and the Secretariat of the Navy, responsible for the work and railway operation. Meanwhile, the Secretariat of the Navy reported in a statement that the bodies of the people who lost their lives in the accident have been fully recovered. Yesterday, it had reported that they were still trying to rescue the last victim of the disaster. '36 people remain hospitalized receiving specialized medical care; similarly, the bodies of the 13 people who unfortunately lost their lives have been recovered,' the agency pointed out. The incident occurred in a mountainous area of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor, one of the Mexican government's strategic projects that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through a railway, port, and industrial network that crosses the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz. The Interoceanic Corridor has been presented by the federal Executive as a logistical alternative to the Panama Canal and as a pole of development for the southeast of the country, although it has also faced challenges related to infrastructure, security, and opposition from some communities due to environmental impacts. According to the Semar, the accident occurred on Sunday at 09:28 local time (15:28 GMT) at the height of the Zapotec community of Nizanda on Line Z of the 'Istmeño' train, between the towns of Nizanda and Chivela, on the Salina Cruz–Coatzacoalcos route, in Oaxaca. Line Z, inaugurated in 2023, runs from Veracruz (Atlantic) to Salina Cruz (Oaxaca) and is 212 kilometers long.
