3 dead, 4 missing after smuggling boat capsizes in southern Mexico: police

Three people were killed and four more went missing after a tiny boat capsized in southern Mexico on Monday.

Police said the boat was carrying migrants from Honduras who had entered Mexico illegally, Agence France-Presse reported. Four people were rescued; they were also Honduran citizens.

The tragedy occurred in Agua Dulce, where the Tonala River flows into the Gulf of Mexico, authorities told AFP. The location, in Veracruz state, is about 340 miles southeast of Mexico City.

It was just the latest in a series of deadly incidents for migrants across Mexico in the past week. Also on Monday, a Salvadoran father and son died crossing the Suchiate River between Guatemala and Mexico, according to AFP.

On Saturday, four people were killed and sixteen others injured when an overloaded truck crashed in Chiapas, the Mexican state on the other side of the river border with Guatemala.

Despite tighter formal restrictions at borders across Central America and especially at the U.S.-Mexico border, thousands upon thousands of people attempt the journey north every month. In April alone, U.S. Border Patrol reported stopping more than 200,000 people.

Earlier this month, 11 people died and 31 were rescued when another over-capacity vessel capsized between the island of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The U.S. Coast Guard said the boat was “suspected of taking part in an illegal voyage.”