Body of a Guatemalan girl who died at the US border and was sent back to her home country

The body of a 7-year-old girl who died while under the care of the US Border Patrol earlier this month was flown to her home country, Guatemala, before being buried in his original village.

Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country. received the white coffin containing the body of Jakelin Caal at the Guatemala City International Airport. Workers wearing orange vests loaded the coffin at the back of a black hearse. No family members were present.

In the village of San Antonio Secortez, to the north of the capital, relatives of Jakelin erected a small wooden altar flanked by vases filled with flowers, with photographs of Jakelin and the handwritten message "We miss you." Behind the house, dozens of women have prepared tamales and beans to feed those in mourning.

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Relatives were waiting for Jakelin's body to arrive early Monday. Domingo Caal, the girl 's grandfather, told The Associated Press that the family did not have money to travel to Guatemala City to find the plane carrying her children. spoils.

Caal and his father, Nery Caal, traveled with a group of 163 people. migrants who arrived at the border of New Mexico earlier this month. After their arrest on December 6, the father told an American officer that the girl was sick and vomited.

The father signed a document stating that Jakelin was in good health, but he did not know how much he understood what. It said. The form was in English and the agents read it in Spanish.

A bus carrying the two men left the Antelope Wells port of entry for Lordsburg Station, about 90 minutes away. According to a statement from Customs and Border Protection, Jakelin's temperature would have reached 105.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Emergency medical technicians had to revive her.

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She was then taken to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, where she died the next day [19659003] The spokeswoman of the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry, Marta Larra, said the ministry had sent a diplomatic note to the US State Department asking her to monitor the case and determine the cause of death. The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security has opened his own investigation into the death.

The Associated Press contributed to the writing of this report.