It was the final time she would speak with her boy.
As the train approached the Olivos station, two stops east of Periférico, three metal girders supporting the elevated line gave way, authorities said, plunging the last two cars of the train toward busy Tláhuac Avenue some 15 feet below. The two subway cars separated from the rest of the train and dangled in a horrific, V-shaped tableau as metal and concrete debris from the super-structure plummeted to the bustling boulevard.
At least 26 people train passengers and at least one motorist who was crushed on the avenue below were killed and dozens more injured, many of them working-class residents returning home after night jobs. It was the deadliest incident in decades on the Mexico City Metro, which opened in 1969 and now carries more than 4 million passengers daily, second in the Americas only to New York’s subway.
The deadly crash off Point Loma shows how decades of heightened border enforcement and recent pandemic policies drive people to riskier crossings.
The infamously crowded and deteriorating Metro is a vital lifeline here, connecting commuters in a sprawling metropolis that is home to more than 20 million, among the world’s most densely populated.
Brandon Giovanni Hernández Tapia was the youngest of the fatalities. The 12-year-old loved soccer, dreamed of traveling around the world and hoped to become a doctor so he could buy his mother a house to escape the grinding poverty of Colonia Zapotitla. His sobbing grandmother said at the boy’s wake that he liked dancing with her.
We are trapped here : A Mexican town isolated by cartel terror
Patrick J. McDonnell and Cecilia Sánchez, Los Angeles Times
April 25, 2021
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1of3A convoy of vehicles from the Mexican Army patrol during the visit of the Apostolic Nuncio Franco Coppola, not pictured, in Aguililla community, state of Michoacan, Mexico, on April 23, 2021.ENRIQUE CASTRO/TNSShow MoreShow Less
2of3Monsignor Franco Coppola, the Vatican s diplomat to Mexico, bless people as he arrives to meet families and celebrate Mass in Aguililla, a town that has been cut off by warring cartels in Michoacan state, Mexico, Friday, April 23, 2021. State police and soldiers were sent in to restore order earlier this month, but cartels responded by parking hijacked trucks across roads to block them, as well as digging deep trenches across roadways. (AP Photo/Armando Solis)Armando Solis/Associated PressShow MoreShow Less
By PATRICK J. MCDONNELL AND KATE LINTHICUM | Los Angeles Times | Published: December 21, 2020
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. MEXICO CITY (Tribune News Service) In Latin America, a region hard hit by pandemic, poverty and flawed health care systems, many experts fear that large-scale coronavirus immunization campaigns could prove a logistical nightmare, even as vaccinations are set to begin. Home to 8.4% of the global population, Latin America and the Caribbean account for 30% of the world’s 1.6 million COVID-19 deaths and 19% of the 76 million COVID-19 infections, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and the World Bank.
As vaccine rollout nears, many concerns raised in Latin America, hard hit by COVID-19 [Los Angeles Times]
In Latin America, a region hard hit by pandemic, poverty and flawed healthcare systems, many experts fear that large-scale coronavirus immunization campaigns could prove a logistical nightmare, even as vaccinations are set to begin.
Home to 8.4% of the global population, Latin America and the Caribbean account for 30% of the world’s 1.6 million COVID-19 deaths and 19% of the 76 million COVID-19 infections, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and the World Bank.
Mexico and Chile plan to start inoculating health workers by month’s end with the vaccine developed by U.S.-based Pfizer Inc. and its German partner, BioNTech, which is already in use in the United States and Britain. Other Latin American countries are unveiling ambitious plans for large-scale immunization campaigns employing varying vaccines, most still in the testing stage and virtually all developed