Seventeen funeral caravans left Tuesday night from the Guatemalan Air Force (FAG) base to the homes of the young migrants who died on March 27 in the fire that broke out in a detention center in Ciudad Juárez, on the border. between Mexico and the United States.
They sought to reach the United States and ended up in the custody of the National Institute of Migration, a government agency.
The Mexican authorities repatriated the coffins of 17 of the 19 victims of the tragedy, in which 39 migrants of different nationalities died.
After two weeks of waiting, the relatives burst into tears and sobs upon receiving the bodies of their loved ones.
After the condolences and official homage, the procession undertook long routes back home.
The wait will be prolonged for the families and communities of the other two deceased, whose identity must be confirmed through DNA tests.
In Nahualá, a town with an indigenous majority located 157 kilometers from the capital, they received five of the 19 Guatemalans.
Hearses made their way through a demonstration that has kept one of the country's main routes closed for two days.
The residents have placed their bodies on the road so that the government of President Alejandro Giammattei meets their demands, that the agreements to end a territorial conflict that has been going on for more than 150 years are fulfilled, and that the authorities send 3,500 police officers to protect to residents who want to farm their land.
The Minister of the Interior, Napoleón Barrientos, called for a dialogue table that did not echo among the protesters.
"We are not going to be imprudent either to approach a place where people are upset, we have to be very careful not to compromise the police force," said the official.
Relatives of Francisco Chiquival, who died during the fire in Ciudad Juárez, place a Guatemalan flag on his coffin, in Nahualá, this Wednesday.
STRINGER (REUTERS)
The inhabitants of Nahualá live in an environment of tension and low risk, based on a territorial dispute that they have had since 1862 with the neighboring municipality of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán, since both towns are awarded ownership of a coveted land for its water reserves. .
The two communities in conflict are in Sololá, a department that each year receives thousands of visitors from Lake Atitlán, one of the main tourist attractions in Guatemala.
When the tension over the territorial conflict escalates in Nahualá, the days pass between detonations of firearms or homemade mortars.
Under anonymity, several neighbors report that they have been threatened with shooting them out if they step on the opposite territory, where they are considered intruders.
In December 2021, 13 people from Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán were massacred, including three children, who were going to harvest corn.
The Government has assured that organized crime groups operate in the area, but to date those allegedly responsible for the massacre have not been captured.
One of the 17 returned yesterday, Manuel Chox Tambriz, was 21 years old and lived in one of the conflict territories.
His parents and relatives expressed to the local media the need for financial help.
For many, migrating implies contracting million-dollar debts with coyotes or human traffickers.
Poverty adds to insecurity in Nahualá, where 89% of the population lives in poverty in conditions very similar to the other eight towns where the other migrants who died in Ciudad Juárez who returned to Guatemala with the support of the Government of Mexico lived. .
"We are working so that this never happens again, programs to care for migrants are intensifying, but also programs so that migration in our territories is not forced," said Laura Elena Carrillo, executive director of the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation. for Development.
Tribute to the Guatemalan migrants who died in Ciudad Juárez, at the La Aurora airport, in Guatemala City, this Tuesday. Moises Castillo (AP)
die away
This is not the first time that Nahualá has mourned the return of migrants who died en route to the United States.
In July 2022 alone, the bodies of five unaccompanied adolescents were repatriated.
Three of them died of suffocation inside a truck that traffickers left abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas.
With the 17 coffins of the victims of the fire in Ciudad Juárez, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala has assisted, with legal and economic support, the repatriation of more than 50 people during 2023. In 2022, this agency supported the return of 427 Guatemalans who died abroad, 361 died in the United States.
The number of migrants who died abroad may exceed the official data, since there are families that do not require government assistance.
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