Rigoberto Miranda will be extradited from Guatemala to the US after being identified as the “leader” of a gang dedicated to trafficking migrants to the US
Text: RFI / AFP
A Guatemalan court on Wednesday authorized the extradition to the United States of a Guatemalan accused of leading a human trafficking network linked to the deaths of 53 migrants in a truck trailer in Texas in 2022.
“This court unanimously declares the formal extradition of Guatemalan citizen Rigoberto Miranda admissible,” Judge César Amezquita said at the hearing.
With this decision, the three judges who make up this court endorsed “his effective surrender” to the American justice system, although for the moment there is no set date for extradition.
Miranda, 47, was arrested on August 21 in the department of San Marcos (west), wanted by the United States accused of leading the organization that illegally brought migrants into US territory, who died on June 27, 2022.
The Guatemalan is accused of being the “leader” of the “Los Orozcos” gang, dedicated to “trafficking migrants to the United States,” according to the Ministry of the Interior.
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Before the hearing began, Miranda and members of his family prayed in the courtroom, an AFP photographer observed.
According to US authorities, the 53 migrants died from hyperthermia and acute dehydration while travelling in an unventilated trailer. Of the total passengers, only 11 survived.
Four Mexicans have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the deaths of these 53 people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
When the smugglers opened the trailer doors at the end of a nearly three-hour journey to the Texas city of San Antonio, 48 migrants, including a pregnant woman, were dead. Sixteen were taken to hospitals, but five of them died.
Miranda and the others arrested for the events could face life imprisonment in the United States.
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