“The current swept them away. It beat us,” said Guillermo Alan Matos to a member of Grupo Beta Francisco Manrique, who found this Cuban in shock in the Braulio Fernández Aguirre Park, in the border city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila (Mexico). His wife Alexa Nadine, a Uruguayan national, and his son Ismael had just drowned in their attempt to swim across the Rio Grande.
Days ago, this 33-year-old from Havana had entered the border state with the United States and had witnessed the passage of migrant families through the river. “People are overconfident and don’t take into account that the temperature of the water paralyzes you and hypothermia attacks are common,” he tells 14ymedio the rescuer. “Since last Friday the water level has increased and there is a greater flow, because the Amistad dam was released into the Rio Grande.”
Alan refused to leave the place until the bodies of his wife and son were recovered. “He pointed out to the rescue team the area where he lost sight of them. We recovered the boy’s body, but the life of this Cuban was destroyed,” says Manrique. “The river has become a tomb for migrants. So far this year we have a record of 18 deaths.”
The Cuban was transferred by the National Institute of Migration to the immigration station where he will be given support. “The minor’s body could be cremated or buried, as determined by the father,” says the member of the rescue team.
“The Rio Grande has become a tomb for migrants. So far this year we have a record of 18 deaths,” says Grupo Beta member Francisco Manrique
Last February 4, a Cuban family was caught on video in Piedras Negras at the time of swimming across the Rio Grande to reach Eagle Pass and ask for asylum. The migrants took the risk despite being warned about the depth and temperature of the water. In the images you can see how the current dragged one of them, who had to be helped.
Manrique, who joined Grupo Beta last year, tells this newspaper that since last February groups of migrants with humanitarian visas have been observed in the vicinity of the Rio Grande. “They release versions that if you enter the United States through Eagle Pass you will not be deported and, with this idea, last Friday, a woman, in her attempt to cross the river, lost her four-year-old daughter.”
This Wednesday, Angélica Mendoza, originally from Nicaragua, went to the Mexican consulate in Eagle Pass to request help in the search for her daughter, as published Plinth. The 32-year-old woman trusts that the little girl is alive and has remained on the Mexican side.
This Wednesday, the Public Security office confirmed the arrest of six Cubans, among whom were three minors. Migrants Ariana González Sánchez, 38, Jennifer López González (16), Yaison Álvarez González (7), Yeidel Álvarez González (5), Yuniesky Álvarez Rodríguez (31) and Fidel Pineda Bravo (37) had planned to pass through the Rio Grande to the US The INM took them to the station located in the federal building on International Bridge II.
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