They dedicate mass in Guatemala to the 56 killed in an accident

Afp

La Jornada newspaper
Saturday, December 18, 2021, p. 3

Guatemala. Between chants and prayers, parishioners and Guatemalan activists remembered yesterday at a mass more than fifty migrants, mostly from that nation, who died in an accident last week in southern Mexico while trying to reach the United States.

They are human tragedies in which we cannot remain insensitive or silentBrazilian Catholic priest Mauro Verzeletti, director of the Casa del Migrante de Guatemala, said at the religious activity in the capital’s cathedral.

Verzeletti urged the governments of the region to pay greater attention to the migratory phenomenon, as well as to invest in development to avoid exoduses.

The migrant cannot be treated as a delinquent or a criminal. They are people, they are human beings, they are workers who want to build a better futureadded the religious to remember the victims and show solidarity with their families.

A backpack, a pair of tennis shoes and a bottle of water were placed near the altar of the cathedral as symbols of the articles that migrants usually use on their way to reach US soil.

On December 9, a trailer carrying overcrowded migrants collided with a wall in the state of Chiapas, allegedly due to speeding. The Mexican authorities count 56 dead and more than a hundred wounded of different nationalities, mainly from Guatemala.

So far, the state National Registry of People of Guatemala, which deployed officials in Mexico, has identified 10 Guatemalans among the deceased by matching fingerprints.

This reality is unfair [las víctimas] They came out, not by their will, but because needs compel themLaura Yax, vice president of the Conference of Religious of Guatemala, told AFP.

We have a lot of indignation and a lot of helplessness because we believe that (these tragedies) cannot continue to happen. We have to say so far from so many deaths of brothers and sistersadded Yax, dressed in colorful indigenous clothing.

Every year, thousands of Guatemalans flee the country in search of better economic opportunities in the United States in the face of poverty that affects more than half of the almost 17 million inhabitants.