Mexican state pledges compensation for stage collapse victims

Mexican state pledges compensation for stage collapse victims

The northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon will compensate the victims of a stage collapse that killed nine people and injured scores at an election campaign event on Wednesday, the governor said.

Samuel Garcia said on social media that 144 patients had been discharged and 36 remain hospitalized. The state government plans to compensate the relatives of the deceased, eight adults and one child, with 400,000 pesos ($23,900).

Hospitalized victims would receive 100,000 pesos each "until their recovery or discharge", Garcia said. He did not elaborate.

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Jorge Alvarez Maynez, the presidential candidate for the centrist Citizens' Movement party, said on X that all the injured were stable.

Maynez had attributed the stage collapse at the event in the city of San Pedro Garza Garcia, a wealthy enclave near the industrial hub of Monterrey, to high winds.

Video of the accident showed the structure suddenly falling forward into the crowd, sending politicians on the stage and panicked attendees running for cover.

In the presidential election slated for June 2, Maynez is polling in third place, trailing far behind ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum and second-place contender Xochitl Galvez, who represents a broad opposition coalition.