Another 47 people were injured in the accident, in which the vehicle, which was traveling too fast, collided with two other cars.
A total of 16 peopleincluding 13 Venezuelan citizens, died in Nicaragua when the bus they were traveling in plunged into an abyss in the northern part of the Central American country, the Nicaraguan Police reported this Thursday. The accident occurred Wednesday night on a winding slope known as ‘La Cucamonga’, located in the department (province) of Estelí, 170 kilometers north of Managua, authorities confirmed. Among the victims -11 men and 5 women-, are 13 Venezuelan citizens, a Nicaraguan and two unidentified people, according to the official report issued this morning.
The vice president of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, affirmed that the Executive is “waiting for the contacts of the Venezuelan Government with the relatives to know their provisions. You always have to wait for what they say, what the relatives think to make the transfer to their homeland & rdquor ;.
Another 47 people, who the Nicaraguan Police did not identify, were injured and are receiving care at the San Juan de Dios Hospital, in the city of Estelí. Among the survivors is supposedly a 3-year-old girl named Adalin Valeria, who would be the daughter of the victims Jordán José Castellano Castillo and Cinthia Ninoska Rojas, about whom the authorities have not commented until now.
Police authorities reported that the accident it happened due to speeding with which the bus was driven, that before going to the precipice collided with two light cars, one of which also fell into the embankment. The bus driver, Alfredo Palma, 46, and his assistant, who was not identified, were uninjured and are under arrest.
The National Police also confirmed that the bus and its occupants were heading north, but did not refer to the statements of some witnesses, who had reported that it was a irregular immigrant journey They were heading towards the border with Honduras, from which they were just over an hour away. The Nicaraguan authorities did report that personnel from the General Directorate of Immigration and Aliens are part of the team dealing with the case. Two people remain unidentified. Due to its geographical location, Nicaragua is an obligatory step for people and merchandise that want to cross the American continent by land.
In addition to Castellano and Rojas, the other Venezuelans who died in the accident were identified as Judith Maritza Cáceres Contreras, 45 years old; Franyel José Pérez Urroa, 44; Alexis Rodolfo Hurdaneta, 43; Arístides Brillembourg Arambulo, 39, and Jackson Jahir Somoza Niño, 38. There are also Joselyn Mariajosé Martel Bermúdez, 38; Dalia Elena Soler Cortez, 37; Neomar Sulem Márquez Flores, 36; Antony Enrique Romero Romero, 31; Eyner Edgardo Rodríguez Molina, 30, and Juleana Beatriz Quiñónez Martel, 20. The Nicaraguan victim was identified as Lorenzo Alberto Mejía Leiva, 42 years old.
‘La Cucamonga’, where this type of accident occurs periodically, is a section of the Pan-American Highway flanked by chasms and unstable walls, which cannot be avoided and which connects the Nicaraguan border area with the rest of the country.