Mexicans Try to Identify Boxcar Victims

EL PASO —  Dozens of Mexicans were allowed to cross the border Saturday to see if their relatives were among the 18 victims who suffocated in a sealed boxcar.

Meanwhile, U.S. Border Patrol agents said they learned the name and address of the smuggler who locked 19 men inside the boxcar from a Mexican who had tried to get on the train with the men but was left behind at the last minute.

Temperatures inside the foam-insulated, virtually airtight car soared to 130 degrees by the time it was opened Thursday in Sierra Blanca, about 75 miles southeast of El Paso.

Miguel Tostado Rodriguez, 21, survived the 14-hour ordeal by using a railroad spike to widen an eight-inch breathing hole in the wooden floor of the car.

Eight Men Identified

The Border Patrol showed pictures of the dead to those who inquired at the mortuary and took the photographs to the border bridges between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez upon request, officials said. Mexican Consulate officials identified eight of the dead men.

Many anxious families were from towns nowhere near those of the victims, said Jim Weatherly, director of the El Paso Mortuary, where the bodies were being held pending identification and release.

Rogelio Herrera Negrete, who came by bus to Ciudad Juarez from the town of Pabellon de Arteaga, identified a photograph of his 17-year-old son, Jose Luis Herrera Jimenez.

“It’s a big sadness to me,” the elder Herrera said.

The youth left last week without saying where he was headed, the father said. “He said he was going with his friends. No more.”

William G. Harrington, assistant chief of the El Paso sector of the Border Patrol, said authorities knew the names of six other victims, but needed family assistance to make positive identification.

Jose Martinez Pena, 40, of Zacatecas, Mexico, told border officials that he also tried to get on the train with the 19 men but was unable to grab on, Harrington said Saturday.

After he missed the train in El Paso, Pena said he ran up to the smuggler who had locked the men inside the boxcar and asked why he was left behind, the El Paso Times reported Saturday.

Pena said the smuggler, believed to be a Mexican national known by the name Chapulin, replied: “You were late, and they had to leave.”

Authorities said Pena helped Border Patrol agents find Chapulin’s Mexican address, and they believe the smuggler already has left the United States and returned to Mexico.

The Border Patrol would not say if Chapulin has an American passport or an alien card.