Town bids farewell to victim of Mexico truck crash

GUATEMALA CITY — The body of Guatemalan migrant Daniel Arnulfo Prez Uxla was laid out for the memorial service Sunday in his hometown of Tejar, in the highland province of Chimaltenango.

Prez Uxla was one of four migrants killed in a Dec. 9 truck crash in southern Mexico whose bodies were returned to their homeland Saturday. A total of 56 migrants died when a people smugglers’ semi-trailer truck jammed with migrants overturned on a highway.

Prez Uxla was a 41-year-old ironworker who left for the United States in hopes of paying off a mortgage on his home, after losing his job during the coronavirus pandemic. His coffin was surrounded by white and yellow flowers and candles at his tin-roofed home. He left behind a wife and three children.