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The family of a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died in the custody of the US Border Patrol is challenging a story by US officials who claimed they did not receive food or water for days.
Jakelin Caal's parents stated that the girl had received food and water and appeared to be in good health while she was crossing Mexico with her father, Nery Gilberto Caal, 29 years. The family added that Jakelin had not crossed the desert for several days before being detained.
Tekandi Paniagua, Guatemala's consul in Del Rio, Texas, told the Associated Press that he had spoken with Jakelin's father. The consul told Nery Caal that the group they were traveling with had been dropped in Mexico about 90 minutes walk from the border.
Border Patrol officials did not immediately respond to the family's comments.
published Saturday at a press conference in El Paso, Texas, in an immigrant shelter where Jakelin's father resides. His family was not present and asked for confidentiality.
Jakelin and his father were seeking asylum in the United States and were part of a large group of migrants arrested on December 6 near a remote New Mexico border crossing. A few hours later, they were placed on a bus to the nearest border patrol post, but Jakelin began to vomit and finally stopped breathing. She died later in a Texas hospital.
Border patrol officials said Friday that the officers had done everything possible to save the girl, but that she had neither food nor water for days. They added that an initial screening showed no evidence of health problems and that her father had signed a form stating that she was in good health.
But the family disputed this form, in English, language that his father did not have. speak or read. He has communicated with border services officers in Spanish, but he mainly speaks Mayan Q 'eqchi'.
"It is unacceptable for a government agency to have detainees sign documents in a language that they clearly do not understand," the statement said.
Jakelin's family urges the authorities to conduct an "objective and thorough" investigation into the death and determine whether the authorities are complying with the arrest and custody standards.
The cause of death has not yet been released. A private prayer service was held Friday in Texas so that his father could see Jakelin's body before taking him to Guatemala, said Ruben Garcia, director of the Annunciation House shelter where his father resides.
"We were all moved by the depth of his faith and his confidence that the hand of God is in all of this," said Garcia.
Family members in Guatemala said Caal had decided to To emigrate with his favorite child to earn money that he could send home.The mother and three brothers of Jakelin stayed in San Antonio Secortez, village of about 420 inhabitants
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