By David Toro

SOLOLA, Guatemala (Reuters] – The family of a Guatemalan migrant who was killed in a fatal truck accident in Mexico claimed that they felt forgotten by Mexican governments. They feel no protection along the dangerous route to the United States and have few options to return to Guatemala.

Celso Escun Pacheco was 34 when he left Guatemalan highlands to kiss his wife and young children goodbye. Then he set off for America, hoping to get a job that would pay well.

The family of the victim did not know that their journey would end in Mexico two days later. A truck carrying over 160 persons was struck by a car trailer in Mexico and it flipped on a bend outside Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas.

Mexico’s worst-ever death toll of migrants was 55, with most of them from Guatemala.

According to his wife, Escun was a farmer worker earning $7 per day. He sustained injuries and managed to escape with his life.

At the family’s modest home, made of wood and sheet metal, in Pamezabal, a tiny village in Santa Lucía Utatlan, a municipality of the province of Solola, Escun’s wife Lucrecia Alba said the amount of deadly incidents involving migrants made them feel left behind by state authorities.

It isn’t the first accident of its kind. Alba said that the government should not be concerned about high-risk situations because they have happened before.

The incident highlighted the dangers that migrants face when crossing the border to the United States. Many of these are often caused by human-traffickers called coyotes. Over the last decade, hundreds of migrants were killed in violence and other fatalities in Mexico.

Lucrecia Alba’s uncle, Santos Juan Alba said, “We need to increase awareness. Migrants need more security on their roads.” People are moving away because they don’t have any opportunities.

It is clear that migrants from Central American countries are fleeing extreme circumstances, like severe poverty or gang violence.

After the incident, Guatemalan officials appealed to the United States for more investment in the region. Mexico and Guatemala pledged to clamp down on the international trafficking networks, which they both blamed for Thursday’s accident.

Enrique Matzar (secretary of the Cocode de Pamezabal), a local government agency said that strict U.S. immigration policy of Trump’s administration only makes the problem worse.

Matzar explained that “(With] the current American government’s controls, migrating has become increasingly dangerous and expensive. People will continue migrating in Guatemala due to the high level of corruption and need.”