GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The Guatemalan Foreign Ministry said Thursday it has identified 11 of 14 people found dead last week inside a pickup truck that overturned in a river in northern Mexico as migrants from Guatemala. Among the deceased, there is a minor.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs initially said there were five, then increased the number to eight and now it has been confirmed that there are 11 deceased Guatemalans and that, according to relatives, it was migrants seeking to reach the United States.
Most of them came from Totonicapán, one of the western departments of Guatemala with a predominantly indigenous and poor population.
Karla Samayoa, spokeswoman for the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry, explained that the last three nationals who died were identified through their fingerprints, as they were initially thought to be Hondurans. This portfolio also indicated that the repatriation of the corpses will begin on Sunday.
In addition to the identified Guatemalans, among those who died is a Mexican citizen. A woman and a minor remain to be identified.
Mexico’s Nuevo León state prosecutor’s office said in a Feb. 7 statement that, through a telephone report, an overturned truck was located in the municipality of Pesquería, in that northern Mexican state. . The vehicle, found with its tires up, fell into a river channel and several bodies were lying inside. Others were located submerged in the river, which is about three meters deep.