Dead Guatemalan migrant girl’s family denies she was starved
The family of a seven-yearold Guatemalan girl who died in US Border Patrol custody disputed claims that she had gone without food or water for days before she entered the United States with her father.
In a statement released by lawyers, the parents of Jakelin Caal said the girl had been given food and water and appeared to be in good health as she travelled through Mexico with her father, Nery Gilberto Caal, 29.
Tekandi Paniagua, the Guatemalan consul in Del Rio, Texas, said that Jakelin’s father had told him the group they were travelling with was dropped off in Mexico about a 90-minute walk from the border.
Jakelin and her father were among a large group of migrants arrested on December 6 near a remote border crossing in New Mexico. Hours later they were placed on a bus to the nearest Border Patrol station, but Jakelin began vomiting and eventually stopped breathing. She died later at a Texas hospital.
The Border Patrol said its agents did everything they could to save the girl but that she had not had food or water for days. They said an initial screening showed no evidence of health problems, and that her father had signed a form indicating she was in good health.
But the family took issue with that and said the form was in English, a language Mr Caal does not speak or read.
Jakelin’s family urged authorities to conduct an “objective and thorough” investigation into the death and to determine whether officials met standards for the arrest and custody of children.
A cause of death has not yet been released.
Jakelin’s mother and three siblings remain in San Antonio Secortez, Guatemala, a village of about 420 people.