Caballero described her sons as «healthy, studious,» telling journalists they loved soccer and dancing and left «in search of a better future». As the medical examiner’s office began the painstaking process of identifying victims, families across Mexico and Central America have begun learning that loved ones who left in search of a future in the United States are among the 53 dead. A portrait of those who were inside the tractor-trailer is slowly coming together. Pascual’s cousin, Juan Wilmer Tulul Tepaz, also 13, accompanied him on the journey and died as well.

The head of Mexico’s immigration agency, Francisco Garduño Yáñez, said the trailer originated in Texas and «did not pass through Mexico, through any of its checkpoints in the country.» Homero Zamorano Jr. on Monday, he said. The vehicle continued north, Yáñez said, before stopping in San Antonio, where it was discovered on a desolate stretch of road. Yáñez said the truck had been packed with 67 people, and the dead included 27 from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador. He was charged with one count of alien smuggling resulting in death and faces up to life in prison or possibly the death penalty if convicted.

Investigators found cellphone communications between Zamorano and Christian Martinez, 28, who has been charged with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death. Two other men, Juan Claudio D’Luna-Mendez, 23, and Juan Francisco D’Luna Bilbao, 48, face weapons charges. In the small village of San Marcos, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, Yolanda Olivares Ruiz was desperate after losing contact with her two sons, Yovani Valencia Olivares, 16, and Jair Valencia Olivares 19, who departed for the United States last week. The brothers left with their 16-year-old cousin, Misael Olivares.

The family last heard from her sons on Monday morning, when they wrote a text message saying they were waiting to be «picked up» from a warehouse in Laredo, Tex. , Olivares Ruiz said. «They were so happy and hopeful that by next morning, they would be joining a relative who was waiting for them in Austin and start working,» she said. Since that last message, they have not replied to desperate calls and countless texts.

original source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/29/texas-migrant-deaths/

picture: unsplash.com