Death at the border

Next to headlines about a dead body being found somewhere, and another government official sentenced for money laundering, today's Prensa Libre (one of the leading daily newspapers in Guatemala) had an article titled "Three Dead Guatemalans Drowned in the Rio Bravo" (the Rio Bravo is the river that we in the U.S. call the Rio Grande, but Latin Americans calls the Rio Bravo). The story goes on to say that the bodies of two women, ages 15 and 37 and one young man, age 16, were pulled from the river which they were trying to cross in order to get into the U.S. Apparently a young Guatemalan woman who was  part of the same group that was  trying to cross to the U.S. told authorities that some people had gotten carried away by the currents. 

These are everyday tragedies that rarely get reported in the U.S. Hundreds if not thousands die each year trying to enter the country -- either drowned or, probably more often, dying in the desert. Or, like the tragedy last week, suffocating in the back of an airless trailer, abandoned by the coyotes.

The names weren't given in the story about the three bodies pulled from the river; perhaps they are waiting to inform the families. All three were from the western highlands, according to the article.