3 Venezuelan migrants killed in Mexico highway accident

MEXICO CITY — Three Venezuelan migrants were killed and five other migrants were injured in a van accident in southern Mexico on Wednesday, authorities said.

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute initially reported that two migrants were killed without giving their nationalities or saying any were injured.

But prosecutors in the southern state of Chiapas said later that three died, all Venezuelans.

The immigrants were killed when the van they were riding in crashed into a truck near the border with Guatemala, officials said.

Late Tuesday, nine other Venezuelan migrants were injured when the truck they were riding in crashed near another town in Chiapas.

Also on Wednesday, Venezuelans protested at immigration offices in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, close to San Diego. The immigration institute said 30 of them were given transit passes authorizing them to leave the country.

Venezuelan migrants continue to try to cross Mexico to reach the U.S. border despite rule changes announced last week stating that Venezuelans caught crossing the U.S. border will be expelled.

Starting last week, Mexico’s immigration institute increased the number of highway checkpoints aimed at stopping migrants. At least three more such inspection areas have been set up near the Guatemala border.

According to Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, about 1,768 Venezuelans have been returned to Mexico from the United States since the changes were announced. But Ebrard said the numbers are falling, noting that “every day there are fewer.”