The Attorney General's Office (FGR) has brought charges against three individuals for homicide and negligent injury in connection with the derailment of the Interoceanic Train in Oaxaca on December 28th, which resulted in 14 deaths and over 100 injuries. Furthermore, it was reported that 114 adults and 31 children and adolescents have received full reparations, leading to the consequent extinction of the criminal action. In a report on social media about the progress of the case, FGR head Ernestina Godoy stated that as a result of the investigations, which included four case files, authorities “conclusively proved the commission of the crimes of homicide and negligent injury, with the participation of the train driver, the conductor, and the chief dispatcher.” Godoy explained that her agency “exhausted all possible lines of investigation to determine the cause of the accident and the related crimes.” Regarding the crime of property damage, Godoy noted that the company decided to grant forgiveness from the aggrieved party, and for the crime of attacks to general communication routes, “we discarded it with the expert opinions in architecture and civil engineering, as well as in industrial safety.” She explained that, “after a meticulous inspection and sampling, it was verified that at the point of the accident, the track, sleepers, fastenings, and ballast meet the standard.” As for the crimes of illegal use of attributions and improper exercise of public service, Godoy indicated that they were dismissed based on the duly provided information by the railway company, as well as by the analysis of six audits from the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) and six other audits and five concluded investigation files. Additionally, she specified that with ministerial and expert proceedings in engineering, architecture, topography, and industrial safety, “it was corroborated that the quality of the track elements at the point of the accident and the conditions of the locomotives and wagons comply with the applicable standard.” At the end of last January, the FGR arrested the train's driver and supervisor and determined that the train's excessive speed caused the derailment of the Interoceanic Train in Oaxaca. According to the agency, after analyzing the train's “black box,” it was concluded that the unit was traveling at 65 km/h on the curve where the derailment occurred, when the maximum permitted speed is only 50 km/h. The Interoceanic Corridor is one of the Mexican government's strategic projects to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through a network of railway, port, and industrial infrastructure that crosses the southern states of Oaxaca and Veracruz. This project, promoted by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) and inaugurated in 2023, was presented as a logistical alternative to the Panama Canal by connecting the Mexican Pacific and Atlantic, as a development hub for the south and southeast of the country.
