Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 27 June 2019

A grim border drowning underlines peril facing many migrants

By PETER ORSI I imagine he told himself, bridge. Tamaulipas immi- ing international attention conducted in Matamoros
AMY GUTHRIE ‘I’ve come this far’ and de- gration and civil defense on migration to the U.S. each week, while some-
Associated Press cided to go with her.” officials have toured shel- “Very regrettable that this where in the neighborhood
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The From the scorching So- ters beginning weeks ago would happen,” Mexican of 800-1,700 names were
man and his 23-month-old noran Desert to the fast- to warn against attempting President Andres Man- on a waiting list.
daughter lay face down moving Rio Grande, the to cross the river, said to be uel Lopez Obrador said It’s not clear what hap-
in shallow water along the pened to the family at the
bank of the Rio Grande, his U.S. Consulate, but later in
black shirt hiked up to his the day they made the de-
chest with the girl tucked cision to cross. The Tamau-
inside. Her arm was draped lipas official said the father
around his neck suggesting and daughter set off from
she clung to him in her final a small park that abuts the
moments. river. Civil defense officials
The searing photograph arrived at the scene at 7
of the sad discovery of p.m. Sunday and later took
their bodies on Monday, the wife to the shelter.
captured by journalist Ju- “I was drawn to the girl’s
lia Le Duc and published arm on her father,” Le Duc
by Mexican newspaper La said as she described ar-
Jornada, highlights the per- riving at the scene. “It was
ils faced by mostly Central something that moved me
American migrants fleeing in the extreme because it
violence and poverty and reflects that until her last
hoping for asylum in the breath, she was joined to
United States. him not only by the shirt
According to Le Duc’s re- but also in that embrace in
porting for La Jornada, which they passed togeth-
Óscar Alberto Martínez er into death.”
Ramírez, frustrated be- “It’s a horrifying image,”
cause the family from El Maureen Meyer, a special-
Salvador was unable to ist on immigration at the
present themselves to U.S. Washington Office on Latin
authorities and request asy- America, which advocates
lum, swam across the river The bodies of Salvadoran migrant Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his nearly 2-year-old for human rights in the re-
on Sunday with his daugh- daughter Valeria lie on the bank of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico. gion, said of the photo-
ter, Valeria. Associated Press graph.
He set her on the U.S. bank “And I think it speaks so
of the river and started 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico bor- swollen with water released Tuesday in response to a clearly to the real risks of
back for his wife, Tania der has long been an at from dams for irrigation. On question about the photo- these U.S. programs that
Vanessa Ávalos, but see- times deadly crossing be- the surface, the Rio Grande graph. “We have always are either returning people
ing him move away the girl tween ports of entry. appears placid, but strong denounced that as there is back to Mexico seeking
threw herself into the wa- A total of 283 migrant currents run beneath. more rejection in the Unit- asylum or in this case limit-
ters. Martínez returned and deaths were recorded last Ramírez said her son and ed States, there are people ing how many people can
was able to grab Valeria, year; the toll so far this year his family left El Salvador who lose their lives in the enter the U.S. every day.”
but the current swept them has not been released. on April 3 and spent about desert or crossing” the river. The United States has also
both away. In recent weeks alone, two two months at a shelter in There was no immediate been expanding its pro-
The account was based on babies, a toddler and a Tapachula, near Mexico’s comment from the White gram under which asylum
remarks by Ávalos to po- woman were found dead border with Guatemala. House. seekers wait in Mexico while
lice at the scene — “amid in the sweltering heat. “I begged them not to go, U.S. “metering” policy has their claims are processed
tears” and “screams” — Le Three children and an but he wanted to scrape dramatically reduced the in U.S. courts, a wait that
Duc told The Associated adult from Honduras died together money to build a number of migrants who could last many months or
Press. in April after their raft cap- home,” Ramírez said. “They are allowed to request even years.
Details of the incident were sized on the Rio Grande, hoped to be there a few asylum, down from dozens This week Nuevo Laredo in
confirmed Tuesday by a and a 6-year-old from India years and save up for the per day previously to some- Tamaulipas, the same state
Tamaulipas state govern- was found dead earlier this house.” times just a handful at some where Matamoros is locat-
ment official who was not month in Arizona, where El Salvador’s foreign min- ports of entry. ed, said it will become the
authorized to discuss the temperatures routinely soar istry said it was working to The Tamaulipas govern- latest city to receive return-
matter publicly and spoke well above 100 degrees assist the family, includ- ment official said the family ees as soon as Friday.
on condition of anonymity, Fahrenheit. ing Ávalos, who was at a arrived in Matamoros early Many migrant shelters are
and by Martínez’s mother The search for Martínez and border migrant shelter fol- Sunday and went to the overflowing on the Mexi-
back in El Salvador, Rosa his daughter was suspend- lowing the drownings. The U.S. Consulate to try to get can side, and cartels hold
Ramírez, who spoke with ed Sunday due to dark- bodies were expected to a date to request asylum. sway over much of Tamau-
her daughter-in-law by ness, and their bodies were be flown to El Salvador on The mother is 21 years old lipas and have been known
phone afterward. discovered the next morn- Thursday. and the father was 25, he to kidnap and kill migrants.
“When the girl jumped in ing near Matamoros, Mexi- The photo recalls the 2015 added. Meanwhile, Mexico is step-
is when he tried to reach co, across from Brownsville, image of a 3-year-old Syri- But waits are long there as ping up its own crackdown
her, but when he tried to Texas, several hundred an boy who drowned in the elsewhere along the bor- on immigration in response
grab the girl, he went in fur- yards (meters) from where Mediterranean near Tur- der. to U.S. pressure, with much
ther ... and he couldn’t get they had tried to cross and key, though it remains to be Last week, a shelter director of the focus on slowing
out,” Ramírez told the AP. just a half-mile (1 kilome- seen whether it may have said only about 40 to 45 asy- the flow in the country’s
“He put her in his shirt, and ter) from an international the same impact in focus- lum interviews were being south.q