A duo of musicians began to interpret “Amor eterno” at the start of a funeral when one of the relatives shouted demanding that they stop because he did not want more sadness than those that have hit Mexicans in recent days after the capital subway accident that left 25 dead.

Thus began the burial of Liliana López, a 37-year-old manager of a boutique who died instantly on the night of May 3 when the subway car in which she was traveling to her house fell into emptiness after finishing her work day.

In the middle of three graves, which the authorities enabled to bury the victims of the accident, Liliana was buried on Wednesday with her chains, bracelets and watch that she used to wear in the Panteón de San Lorenzo, in the capital municipality of Iztapalapa, amid the cries of her 16-year-old son, her husband and some relatives.

“Why don’t they want all the people of Mexico to realize what is really happening?” Said Jesús Sánchez, Liliana’s husband, annoyed, when he condemned the authorities’ decision to prevent the press from entering the cemetery and added that “they are already starting to throw the ball that was the last administration … That is not valid, that they play well with the feelings of the people, that they make fun of that way.”

When complaining about the handling of the case, the Mexican denounced that after more than 12 hours after the accident he had to recognize the body of his wife inside a bag in an ambulance. “That is not the way to treat a person,” he said.

With his eyes full of tears, almost on the verge of tears, this 50-year-old maintenance manager affirmed that the pain would not stop him and that he will take legal action against the government of Mexico City for its “negligence” and the “attack on people’s lives ”.

José Luis Hernández Martínez, a 61-year-old tinsmith, was also buried on Wednesday in the San Lorenzo Pantheon, amid the great secrecy of the authorities who posted more than a score of policemen in the place to limit the passage of visitors and the press. The man was traveling Monday night on a train that had left the underground of the city and was traveling on an elevated section far from the center when two of his orange cars fell into the void.

José Luis died on the spot, said his son, Luis Adrián Hernández Juárez. It is one of the deaths of one of the worst subway accidents in the world and that claimed the lives of 25 people, according to the latest figure released by the capital prosecutor’s office on Tuesday night. More than 70 people were injured.

“My dad was rescued with no vital signs. With trauma to the chest, brain, feet, knees, bruises, ”said her son, who was clinging to the death certificate. Emergency personnel told him that his father had been crushed by other passengers. “It is a very ugly thing to see your father like this for the last time.”

Anger and frustration boiled among the victims’ families and those who use the extensive subway network every day.

“No one is going to give me back to my father even if they give me 10 million pesos,” lamented Luis Adrián, who expressed his concern that his mother had been left without a source of income.

The first data points to a structural failure in the support beams as the cause of the incident, according to the authorities.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum urged the population to avoid speculation and promised a thorough and independent investigation. Authorities expected to present a first preliminary report on the accident on Friday.

Line 12 is the longest and newest in Mexico City, but it has had a succession of problems since it began operating in 2012. Its route reaches the most rural area to the south of the city. Some 220,000 passengers use it daily.

The outrage of the people has already found several targets, such as the director of the metro, Florencia Serranía. Sheinbaum said he had not received reports of problems on Line 12 that suggested the possibility of a failure like the one on Monday night.

Serranía said Tuesday that the line received a “very rigorous” daily inspection. It was also revised in June 2020 after a strong earthquake that did not leave significant damage to the city, he added. A municipal report from 2017, however, identified significant damage to a section of the line after the 7.1 magnitude earthquake of that year.

The Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard, who was mayor of Mexico City between 2006 and 2012, when the line was built, also received criticism. Widely regarded as the possible successor to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Ebrard said those responsible should be identified, adding that he would collaborate with authorities.

However, it could take months to determine what caused the accident and identify a culprit. Family members of many victims face immediate needs caused by the loss of their heads of household.

Gisela Rioja spent Monday night and Tuesday morning scouring city hospitals in search of information about her husband, Miguel Ángel Espinosa Flores, who worked in a department store a few stops from the scene of the accident.

He found him Tuesday in a morgue in the Iztapalapa neighborhood. He described him as hardworking, responsible and happy. She and her two children depended on her income.

“I want justice for my husband because not with a simple forgiveness he will return to us,” she said. “For me it was a love, for me it was everything. It hurts a lot, a lot, a lot because of how it ended. “

Luisa Martínez sat waiting Tuesday afternoon outside the municipal offices of Iztapalapa for the body of her niece’s husband, Carlos Pineda, a 38-year-old dentist, to be delivered. Pineda leaves behind a wife and two children, ages 7 and 13.

″ He was the one who supported his family. Now they are left without sustenance, ”Martínez said. “They have to compensate us now. I don’t want it in a year or in two years like all bureaucratic procedures ”.

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