No one anticipated them again so quickly.
Final week, the stays of 17 Guatemalan males killed in a fire at a migration middle close to the U.S. border had been flown again house, the place three days of nationwide mourning have declared. They had been amongst 40 individuals who died in March on the migration middle in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, close to the border with Texas.
It’s not the primary time the Guatemalan president has had event to declare such a interval of mourning. He has carried out so at the least twice earlier than: in December 2021, when at the least 40 Guatemalans died in a vehicular crash in Chiapas, Mexico, and in March of that very same yr, when greater than a dozen migrants had been shot and burned in Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Thus far this yr, the Guatemalan authorities have helped repatriate 58 useless nationals. In 2022, they introduced again 427 individuals, 361 of whom had died in the US. Many had been migrants making an attempt to cross the American border.
Mexico has detained 5 individuals in reference to the hearth in March. The prosecutor’s workplace can also be anticipated to press criminal charges in opposition to the chief of the Nationwide Institute of Migration.
Beneath, the stays of the migrants arriving at an air power base in Guatemala Metropolis on Tuesday night time.
Francisco Gaspar Rojche Chiquival, 24, and Miguel Rojché Zapalu, 40, had been two of the boys laid to relaxation in Chicacao, a predominantly Indigenous group in southwest Guatemala. They had been uncle and nephew and had left for the US on March 19.
Two of Miguel’s daughters attended his wake.
Their kinfolk mentioned they’d taken out loans to cowl funds to the coyotes — human traffickers — who demanded round $15,000 to $19,000 for every migrant. The boys had been detained close to the U.S. border and had been anticipated to be deported again to Guatemala.
“He didn’t assume he’d be again in a coffin,” mentioned Rosa Elvira Chiquival, 37, Miguel’s widow. She recalled the household going out to hug him the morning he left. She has six youngsters, ages 3 to fifteen. “He mentioned, ‘I’ve to go for you, to get forward.’”
Miguel’s burial in San Pedro Cutzán.
“The president of Mexico has to search for the individuals accountable,” mentioned Aurelia Gutiérrez, 50, a relative of Francisco, whereas a funeral band performed. “They’re not thieves. They search for a technique to help the household as a result of every thing in Guatemala is dear.”
The wake of Marcos Abdón Tziquin Cuc, 21, within the village of Paquilá.
Family and buddies carrying Francisco’s coffin.
Francisco’s coffin was lowered into the bottom on the cemetery.
Associates and kinfolk throughout Francisco’s funeral.
Jody García contributed reporting.
