Relatives of the victims of the Mexico City metro accident, which killed 25 people, are demanding justice on Thursday against the authorities they accuse of negligence.
Three days after this spectacular drama - a subway train plunging into the void after a bridge collapsed - which had a big impact in Mexico, the funeral continued.
Read also: Mexico City: at least 24 dead and 80 injured in the collapse of a bridge at the time of the passage of a metro
In several cemeteries of the city, a single request was on everyone's lips: to establish the causes of the accident and to punish the possible culprits.
"The authorities are responsible,"
proclaims AFP Luis Diaz, who has just buried his 39-year-old father, a driver who had taken metro line 12, deviating from his habit of traveling by bus.
"We were not the only ones affected, other people have also lost family members, a lot of people are injured,"
said Luis, 17, who says he is determined to demand reparations from the authorities. About 80 people were injured in the accident.
“I demand a million or two. My father is dead and no one will return him to me. The authorities must act, ”
he added after the funeral in the poor sector of Tláhuac, in the south of the capital where the accident occurred. Inconsolate, his mother cries and promises to start a trial.
While the effects of this tragedy are still palpable in Mexico City, President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) again assured Thursday that justice will be done.
“Our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives.
Investigations have already started to determine the causes of this accident and to punish those responsible, ”
he said.
The investigations are being carried out by the local authorities and by the Norwegian company Det Norske Veritas.
This company must conduct a
"root cause analysis"
at the origin of the collapse of a concrete section of line 12, assured Thursday the mayor of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum.
President promises sanctions
The site had been marred by a controversy over budget overruns and multiple technical failures. The NGO
"Mexicans Against Corruption"
denounced the austerity policy promoted by Lopez Obrador responsible, according to her, for clear cuts of 8.7 pc in 2020 in the metro budget. What the finance ministry of the capital denied as sharply, stressing that the budget had been reduced due to a drop in user traffic due to the pandemic. Passenger traffic fell by 40 pc in 2020, according to this body.
The budget is evaluated on the basis of an annual projection of the number of tickets sold and subsidies from the federal government.
“Given the pandemic, there has been a reduction associated with the reduction in own revenues. The government was forced to release an additional subsidy for the metro, ”
explained Claudia Sheinbaum. Claudia Sheinbaum and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, potential candidates of the ruling party for the 2024 presidential election, are particularly targeted by criticism.
Line 12 was developed and inaugurated by Ebrard when he was mayor of the metropolis (2012-2018). However, he said he was ready to respond to the authorities, but specified that his responsibility for the administration of the works ended with his mandate.
"We know that the first signs of failures in the elevated part of the line appeared after the 2017 earthquake
," Ebrard said of the earthquake that killed 370 people, mainly in the capital. In the meantime, this Thursday, demonstrations are expected in solidarity with the victims and to demand
"justice, clarification of the facts, an end to corruption and safety in public transport".
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