App and Reuters
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday, July 1, 2022, p. 7
Encinal, Texas. Four migrants died and three other people were injured yesterday when a jeep with seven people, who was being chased by Border Patrol agents, collided with a truck on the interstate highway in Encinal, a small town where the trailer passed that was found on the outskirts of San Antonio on Monday with more than 50 undocumented dead or dying.
The Mexican consulate in Laredo reported in a statement that among the deceased are two Mexican men, a Guatemalan and another unidentified person.
Lt. Chris Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety tweeted that the driver of the jeepthe alleged trafficker, was hospitalized in critical condition along with two undocumented immigrants, whose health is also delicate.
He explained that the accident occurred on Interstate 35, about 64 kilometers north of Laredo, an important route from north to south in the center of the United States for trade from the border with Mexico, which is also exploited by people and drug traffickers. .
Olivarez noted that it was the second fatal human trafficking attempt in 24 hours in the south of the state, after two other migrants died in a vehicle being chased by authorities near the border city of La Joya. Road accidents left at least six deaths, he specified.
Meanwhile, Homero Zamorano, the alleged driver of the abandoned trailer, appeared yesterday before a federal court in San Antonio to hear the charges against him.
At the brief five-minute hearing, the charges he faces were read to him, and he responded only quietly to questions from Trial Judge Elizabeth Chestney, with phrases like Yes ma’am
either No
.
Chestney appointed him a public defender and a second attorney, since the smuggling charge against him carries a possible death sentence. He scheduled a hearing for next week to determine if he is eligible for bail.
Henry Cuéllar, a Democratic legislator whose district includes the eastern part of San Antonio, told Reuters that Zamorano had methamphetamine, a powerful synthetic drug, in his system.
