“This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nuremberg. A local businessman described the back road where the van was abandoned as “la boca del lobo” in Spanish or “wolf’s mouth” because it is remote and black. The road runs parallel to Interstate 35, a major north-south route in the central United States for traffic and trade from the southern border. The interstate stretches from Laredo, Texas to Duluth, Minnesota, near the border with Canada. From San Antonio, it winds north toward Austin, Waco, Fort Worth, and Dallas. It is a route often used by smugglers at a time when record numbers of immigrants are being held at the US-Mexico border. “This sheds light on how dangerous human trafficking is,” said Craig Larrabee, of San Antonio Homeland Security, who specializes in forensics. “In the past, smuggling organizations were moms,” Larrabee told CNN. “Now, they are organized and connected to the cartels. So you have a criminal organization that is not interested in the safety of immigrants. They are treated as a commodity and not as people.”
A cry for help leads to “body stacks”
Just before 6 a.m. Monday, a worker at a nearby building heard a cry for help and alerted local authorities to the abandoned truck, according to San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus.
The doors to the massive trailer were partially open when the worker arrived. Inside, he saw the corpses, said the leader.
A total of 48 people died on the spot and two later died in hospitals, said a federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
They were immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.
A body was found outside the trailer.
There were at least 22 Mexicans and two Hondurans inside the truck, a federal law enforcement official said.
Seven Guatemalans were among the dead and another Guatemalan is in critical condition in hospital, according to the country’s foreign minister.
“We should not open a truck and see stacks of corpses in there,” San Antonio fire chief Charles Hood told reporters Monday. “None of us come to work imagining something like this.”
The survivors, who suffered from heatstroke, were warm to the touch
These dangerous and sometimes deadly human trafficking operations, which transport people full of trailers and trucks without air conditioning, are common along the southern border. In 2017, 10 migrants died and dozens were injured by heat in a tractor-trailer discovered in a San Antonio Walmart about three miles northeast of the latest incident. The driver of the truck was sentenced to life without parole in a federal prison. On Tuesday, San Antonio resident Angelita Olvera left two colorful crosses in honor of the victims near the site of the latest tragedy. “I did not know them,” he told CNN of the victims. “They are sons, mothers, fathers and grandchildren.” Temperatures in San Antonio on Monday ranged from the high 90s to the low 100s. Sixteen survivors – 12 adults and four children – were rushed to local hospitals. Suffering from heatstroke and exhaustion, patients were warm to the touch, according to Hood. The trailer had no air conditioning. There was no sign of water inside. It was not clear how long the victims were dead. “They were still there, waiting for help when we arrived … which just means they were too weak – a weakened state – to really go out and help themselves,” Hood said of the survivors. Felipe Betancourt Jr., co-owner of the truck company in Alamo, Texas, told CNN that the van, which was abandoned Monday, used the same federal and state identification numbers as one of its vehicles. The truck in San Antonio is the same color as its red Volvo semi, but does not belong to its company. Refrigerated semi-trucks are insulated and designed to keep temperatures constant, Betancourt said, but “if they bring something warm inside, they will not let the heat escape. Temperatures can reach up to 125-130 degrees when the doors are closed. . ” On Monday, the truck passed a checkpoint north of Laredo, Texas, according to U.S. lawmaker Henry Cuellar, a Democrat whose large area includes Laredo and San Antonio. Homeland Security officials are investigating the deaths, along with local police. Three people were arrested by police away from the trailer, said Chief McManus. They are believed to be part of the smuggling conspiracy, according to the ICE. Two men, Juan Claudio D’Luna-Mendez and Juan Francisco D’Luna-Bilbao, have been charged federally with “illegal possession of an alien weapon in the United States” in connection with the incident, according to criminal charges filed Monday in the Regional U.S. District Court for West Texas. It is not clear if the two men charged are among the three previously detained. Investigators at the scene found the Texas license plate on the van and at a San Antonio home, the jury said. According to the complaints, the suspects were arrested during a traffic stop after leaving the house, and many weapons were found in a car and a truck driven by the suspects.
“Brothers and sisters who died following their hope for a better life”
The victims were 39 men and 12 women.
So far, the medical examiner’s office has identified possibly 34 people, said Bexar 1 Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores. Medical examiners in neighboring provinces have been called in to help with the number of victims.
Consular officials from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras also promised to help locate the victims and help the survivors.
“Too many lives have been lost as individuals – including families, women and children – make this perilous journey,” Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mallorca said on social media.
The Biden government earlier this month launched what Mayorkas called an “unprecedented” operation to disrupt human trafficking amid growing numbers of migrants across the southern border.
President Joe Biden described Monday’s revelation as “frightening and heartbreaking.”
“Exploiting vulnerable people for profit is shameful, as is the political stance around the tragedy, and my government will continue to do everything possible to prevent smugglers and traffickers from exploiting people who want to enter.” in the United States between ports of entry “. said Biden.
Pope Francis, through Twitter, urged prayers “for these brothers and sisters who died following their hope for a better life.”
650 died trying to cross the US-Mexico border last year
Immigrant rescues are on the rise at the country’s southern border. Since October, more than 14,000 searches and rescue operations have been conducted along the border with Mexico, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service – including those from dangerous waterways. This is from 12,833 searches and rescues in the financial year 2021, with more than three months remaining in this financial year. At least 650 people were killed trying to cross the US-Mexico border last year, the highest number since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency. Monday’s tragedy brings the total number of deaths in the first six months of the year to 290. On Tuesday, helicopters roared over the deserted section of the road where the trailer was abandoned as authorities searched for other migrants who might be riding in the truck. Olvera, a resident who left crosses near the scene, recalled joining neighbors in 2017 to pray for the 10 migrants who lost their lives in a boiling tractor-trailer parked at a Walmart. She lived in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Olvera said, fighting tears and is very familiar with the poverty that some immigrants died while leaving. It is a tragedy that is repeated all these years. In 2003, 18 immigrants, ages 7 to 91, were found dead in the back of a truck in Texas along with about 100 other people as temperatures exceeded 100 degrees Celsius, the researchers said. The driver in that case was initially sentenced to life in prison, but in 2011 he was again sentenced to almost 34 years in prison. CNN’s Rosa Flores, Rosalina Nieves, Amir Vera, Joe Sutton, Amanda Musa, Travis Caldwell, Carolyn Sung, Michelle Watson, Karol Suarez, Kevin Liptak, Jason Hanna, Sharif Paget, Jen Deaton, Amanda Jackson and Steve Almasy the report.
