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Images of drowned Salvadoran migrant and 2-year-old child stir outrage
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico, June 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Shocking images of a
drowned Salvadoran migrant and his two-year-old daughter who died while
trying to cross the Rio Grande river from Mexico to the United States have
sparked outrage, underscoring the dangers faced by asylum-seekers.
Twenty-five-year-old Oscar Martinez Ramirez fled El Salvador with his 21-
year-old wife and their daughter and decided to make the risky crossing from
Mexico to the US on Sunday afternoon, according to a Mexican court report
seen by AFP.
Ramirez carried the little girl on his back, stowing her inside his t-shirt
to keep her safe as they attempted to cross the river. But the pair were
swept away by violent currents, drowning before her mother’s eyes, who
survived the ordeal and arrived on shore.
The two bodies were found Monday in Matamoros in Tamaulipas state.
A series of haunting photographs showing the young father and child lying
face-down in water have stirred anger in El Salvador and Mexico, where the
government had faced sharp criticism for its treatment of migrants.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist who took office in
December vowing to protect migrants’ rights, has previously come under fire
over an AFP journalist’s images last week of heavily armed National Guardsmen
forcibly detaining two women and a girl at the Rio Grande.
On Tuesday, the Mexican leader said the 15,000 troops his government has
deployed to the US border do not have orders to stop migrants from crossing,
and vowed to investigate the controversial detention.
International law protects the right of undocumented migrants to cross
borders to seek asylum, and Mexico has not typically stopped them from doing
so at its northern border.
But Lopez Obrador is facing pressure from US President Donald Trump on the
issue, and his government is eager to show results and avoid the punitive
tariffs the US leader threatened last month to impose on Mexican goods. On
June 7, the two countries reached an agreement, with Mexico agreeing to
reinforce its southern border with 6,000 National Guardsmen. Washington has
given Mexico 45 days to take action.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1228 hrs