Families begin burying bodies of murdered Guatemalan migrants

COMITANCILLO, Guatemala — Families of some of the 16 Guatemalan migrants killed near the Mexico-U.S. border in late January began burying their remains Saturday in the town of Comitancillo, where 11 of the victims were from.

The migrants’ charred bodies arrived Friday night to the region near Guatemala’s border with Mexico after being sent from the other side of Mexico, Reynosa, just across the U.S. border from Texas.

Neighbors brought flowers to a wake for Elfego Roliberto Miranda Díaz, 24, and a mariachi sang Christian music at the memorial for the young pastor.

“We are seeing his coffin, we will not see his face anymore,” reflected Magdalena Dalila Miranda, the young man’s sister. “We are thinking about how it happened, how these people came to kill him.”

A dozen state police officers in Mexico were arrested in connection with the killings, but authorities have not ruled out possible links to drug cartels that frequently charge immigrant smugglers for passing through their territory.

“We are all asking for justice, to know why those police in Mexico killed him, they left his family, his wife has three children and is pregnant,” said the sister. She noted that relatives of one of the other migrants got a call from a family member at the scene, telling them that police were chasing the migrants and they were hiding in the bushes.

President Alejandro Giammattei confirmed this month that five Guatemalans had survived the attack and were under protection in the United States. Giammattei said Friday that his government remained in communication with Mexican authorities to ensure “those responsible for such a deplorable act” are punished. He said the crime must be cleared up so that nothing similar happens again.

“No more. No more violence against migrants,” said the Rev. Mario Aguilón Cardona at services for mourners in the town’s soccer stadium.

Ricardo García said his daughter Santa Cristina García, 20, had gone north to earn money for an operation for her younger sister. Her remains returned Friday in a coffin.

MOISES CASTILLO / AP A relative grieves over the coffin containing the remains of Ivan Pablo Tomas, one of the Guatemalan migrants who was killed near the U.S.-Mexico border in January, at a memorial Mass in a soccer stadium in Comitancillo, Guatemala, Friday. The migrants were among 19 people shot and burned in Camargo, located in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas on Jan. 22.