Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 29 december 2018

Father of dead Guatemalan boy heard rumors they could cross

By SONIA PEREZ D. came from rural communi- returned in the evening
Associated Press ties with extreme poverty. with nausea and vomiting
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Both were taken to the bor- and died there just after
The father of an 8-year-old der by their parents and midnight, CBP said.
Guatemalan boy who died detained by the U.S. Border An autopsy performed on
in U.S. custody took his son Patrol before they fell ill. 8-year-old Felipe shows he
to the border after hearing It appears Felipe got sick had the flu, the New Mex-
rumors that parents and after authorities moved ico Office of the Medical
their children would be al- him from El Paso, Texas, to Investigator said in a state-
lowed to migrate to the Alamogordo, New Mexico, ment late Thursday, adding
United States and escape because of overcrowding. that more tests need to be
the poverty in their home- “He was very happy to done before a cause of
land, the boy’s stepsister leave” on the voyage, death can be determined.
told The Associated Press. Gomez Lucas said, so the After the two deaths, the
Felipe Gomez Alonzo died family does not understand government announced
Monday at a New Mexi- what happened. that it would conduct ad-
co hospital after suffering She said the family stopped ditional medical screening
coughing, vomiting and fe- hearing from Felipe’s father for children and consider
ver, authorities said. It was on Dec. 18, when he and other changes.
the second such death this the boy were detained. On Agustin Gomez was drown-
month. Another Guatema- Dec. 25, he called to say ing in debt, Gomez Lucas
lan child, 7-year-old Jakelin the boy had died in a hos- said. He sold a piece of
Caal, died in U.S. custody pital. land to survive, but the
on Dec. 8. Both deaths are “He told us that (Felipe) was money was not enough, so
under investigation. fine all day, that he was he decided to take out a
“We heard rumors that they playing with other children. loan and travel to the Unit-
could pass (into the United But then he said he felt bad ed States.
States). They said they could and his stomach ached,” Felipe is survived by five sib-
pass with the children,” said the stepsister said. lings, two from his father’s
Catarina Gomez Lucas, the Felipe told his father he did first marriage and three
boy’s 21-year-old stepsister, This undated photo provided by Catarina Gomez on Thursday, not know what was wrong from his stepmother and
explaining why Felipe and Dec. 27, 2018, shows her stepbrother Felipe Gomez Alonzo, 7, with him and that it felt like father.
his father, Agustin Gomez, near Laguna Brava in Yalambojoch, Guatemala. something was stuck in his The boy lived with his fa-
made the dangerous jour- Associated Press throat, Gomez Lucas said. ther’s family in a small
ney. partially shut down over bought the boy new shoes The father said Felipe asked wooden house with earth-
Gomez Lucas would not President Donald Trump’s and left with what money him not to cry because he en floors. It lacked basic
say who spread the rumors insistence on funding for a he had, Gomez Lucas said. “was not going to get bet- services. Gomez Lucas
or who transported the longer border wall. Felipe “always wanted a ter,” according to the boy’s said Felipe’s father earned
father and son to the bor- The Trump administration bicycle,” and in the U.S. he stepsister. about $6 a day through
der from Yalambojoch in has long argued smugglers wouldn’t have to endure Felipe was taken to a hos- temporary farm jobs or har-
Huehuetenango province, capitalize on vulnerable the poverty and lack of pital, and the father said he vesting coffee, which was
a poor community of re- parents because of “loop- opportunity in Guatemala, gave the boy to doctors, not enough to support the
turnees from Mexico who holes” in American law, she said. who soon informed him his family.
had fled Guatemala in such as anti-trafficking leg- The boy’s mother, 31-year- son had died. As with Jakelin’s family, Fe-
the bloodiest years of that islation passed in 2008 that old Catarina Alonzo Perez, U.S. Customs and Border lipe’s relatives now must
country’s 1960-1996 civil effectively prevents the im- said she spoke with her son Protection said the boy dis- deal with the death of a
war. The stepsister spoke to mediate deportations of the day before they arrived played signs of illness Mon- child, a debt and their con-
the AP on Wednesday by Central American children. at the U.S. border. day and was taken with tinued worry about the fate
telephone from Yalambo- After hearing the rumors, “He wasn’t sick on the his father to the hospital, of Agustin Gomez.
joch. Agustin Gomez thought he way; he wasn’t sick here,” where he was diagnosed Oscar Padilla, the Guate-
The boy’s death came dur- should take advantage of she said through her step- with a cold and a fever malan consul in Phoenix,
ing an ongoing dispute “the opportunity” to fulfill his daughter in the Mayan lan- and prescribed amoxicillin confirmed that the father is
over border security and son’s dreams. He grabbed guage known as Chuj. and ibuprofen. He was re- still detained by the Border
with the U.S. government a few changes of clothing, Both Felipe and Jakelin leased that afternoon but Patrol.q