Fifty days of crossing and crying: remains of murdered migrants in Tamaulipas arrive in Guatemala

The remains of the 16 migrants killed on January 22 in northern Mexico are already in Guatemala. Almost 50 days after their loved ones first heard of the deaths of their loved ones via the coyotes that brought them to the United States, their bodies were repatriated on Friday in a cargo plane paid for by the State of Tamaulipas, where the migrants were. executed and burned.

The plane landed before eight in the morning at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City and flew into an area of ​​the Air Force. From the plane, the coffins of migrants covered by the Guatemalan flag were lowered, one by one, to be handed over to two representatives of each family, who waited with photos of the victims and wreaths of flowers under canopies installed by the government for the tribute.

President Alejandro Giammattei promised relatives that the investigation would go “to the last consequences” so that those responsible for the massacre are known and punished. “They are not alone. Count on our support so that this act does not go unpunished and that justice be done ”, he declared in an act in which he decreed three days of national mourning in memory of the victims.

For those close to them, the repatriation of bodies is a step towards closing the mourning for the death of migrants who left Guatemala with the dream of offering their loved ones a better future. “We are happy to be able to bury him, but with sadness and pain,” Cristino Miranda, Edgar López’s brother-in-law, told EL PAÍS. At 50, he was the oldest of the deceased migrants. He was deported last year after being arrested in a raid on a chicken factory in Mississippi and wanted to return to the United States, where he had lived for 22 years, to reunite with his wife, three children and grandchildren.

Like him, most of the migrants came from remote villages in the commune of Comitancillo, in the department of San Marcos, where the funeral of the deceased will be held this weekend. They left on January 12 to provide a more dignified life for their loved ones or to pay for operations or treatment for their sick relatives, which they could not do with their work in Guatemala. Ten days later, the group lost their lives in Camargo, Tamaulipas, on a rural road near the border with the United States, in an area disputed between the Northeast Cartel and the Gulf Cartel.

A total of 19 people died in the massacre, most of them migrants. Although initially it was said that there were 15 Guatemalans, we have learned in recent weeks that there was another victim of this nationality. The other remains corresponded to Mexicans who belonged to the coyotaje networks. In early February, the Tamaulipas prosecutor’s office reported that at least 12 police officers from the elite GOPES group were involved in the massacre. The head of that office said officers were accused of murder, abuse of authority and lying in their reports, but avoided giving details of the exact role they played in the massacre.

A group of Guatemalan congressmen who visited Mexico last month told EL PAÍS that the police confessed to killing the migrants, but did not dismember or burn them. Last week, the Guatemalan foreign minister also confirmed that five migrants survived the massacre and that they had testified before authorities. But he declined to provide more details on the investigation, which is ongoing.

In his message this Friday, Giammattei also launched a message against coyotaje networks and human traffickers. “We are working closely with the countries of the region and with the Guatemalan security forces to locate, prosecute and dismantle all these criminal gangs who shamelessly take advantage of the needs of our compatriots, who deceive them, deceive them and dispatch them. trip, ”asserted. To emigrate to the United States, most of the victims pledged their homes and land to pay the over 100,000 quetzals (over $ 13,000) that the coyotes demand en route. Migrants usually pay an advance, and once they arrive in the United States, they start paying the rest and debts they left behind.

Giammattei also promised that work would be done to create “walls of prosperity and development” so that Guatemalans do not have to take risks on the way north. “May this massacre serve as an example of the struggle that we must lead so that the conditions to stay in our country are created”, he declared before offering his condolences to the families of the victims.

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