“Oscar died. An Oscar and the girl drowned me,” Tania told her mother-in-law Rosa Maria heartbroken. Then the call was cut off.
On April 3, The 25-year-old Scar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and Tania Vanessa Ovals, 21, left El Salvador, along with her 11-month-old baby Angie Valeria, bound for the United States.
But left her job at a pizzeria, Tania had quit as a cashier at a Chinese food restaurant to devote herself to caring for her baby, reported the middle elsalvador.com.
They wanted little Angie Valeria to have a better future. Anscar and Tania wanted to get out of the poverty situation they were in and have better job opportunities, their relatives told.
Rosa Maria, Anscar’s mother, asked her not to make that trip, to stop chasing the ‘American dream’ because it wasn’t so easy to cross the southern border.
Read: No food or water, migrant children describe the “cruel treatment” they received from the US government
He wanted to go to work in America and buy a house for his family, Rosa says.
In the United States, they were expected by family members who had already got them jobs in the state of Dallas.
The young couple were in an immigrant shelter in Tapachula, Chiapas, where they had already applied for shelter and were given a visa that allowed them to be in Mexico while they applied for asylum in the United States, the family told the middle elsalvador.com.
They then moved to Tamaulipas, where they waited for an appointment to apply for asylum in the United States. Seeing that time passed and after enduring temperatures of up to 45 degrees, the family decided to cross the river last Sunday.
Read: 15 thousand elements of the National Guard will prevent migrants from crossing into the US
“They said they were afraid of how the situation was being put with the migrants under pressure from Trump, he told Today’s DiaryWendy, sister of Oscar Alberto and aunt of Angie Valeria.
Sunday was the last time That Scar spoke to his sister, via Facebook. He told her they planned to turn themselves on migration once they had crossed the Bravo River.
Three hours later came the call announcing that Scar and Angie Valeria had drowned.
Tania saw them sink into the river
The family saw that the river looked peaceful and decided to cross it. Oscar Alberto placed the baby between her chest and shirt, while holding her with her hands.
Tania narrated to the Mexican newspaper La Jornada that Oscar Alberto swam and crossed with Valeria whom she left elsewhere, then returned for her, but Valeria, seeing each other alone, got into the river. The father came back to hold her, but the current dragged them both.
Tania managed to save herself by being rescued by someone else. She remains at a migrant shelter in Matamoros, her relatives told Today’s Diary.
The family went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to seek guidance and help in the procedures for repatriating the bodies, which comes at a cost.
In the absence of resources, The cousin of Oscar, Enrique Gómez, asked the government for help through Twitter to repatriate the bodies of his relatives.
“It breaks my soul, seeing my family that way, we asked for help but the cost to bring the bodies of my cousin and his little daughter that he considered my niece, are too high! they’re charging us $7,000.00 to $8,000.00 for bringing their bodies.”
It breaks my soul, seeing my family that way, we asked for help but the cost to bring the bodies of my cousin and his little daughter who considered my niece, are too high! we’re being charged $7,000.00 to $8,000.00 for bringing their bodies ?? https://t.co/FWASm95YvF
— Enrique Gomez (@Enrique39356091) June 24, 2019
Finally, the President of the Savior, Nayib Bukele, reported on Monday that he will pay all the costs of repatriating the body of the young man and his daughter.
The country’s chancellery also called on families not to expose the lives of children by migrating irregularly “on a path full of dangers,” and said the government “works to generate decent opportunities in the country.”
With information from elsalvador.com, El Diario de Hoy and La Jornada.
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