In Photos: Families of Guatemalans Killed in Migrant Center Fire Bury Their Dead

Nobody anticipated them again so quickly.

Last week, the stays of 17 Guatemalan males killed in a fireplace at a migration heart close to the U.S. border had been flown again dwelling, the place three days of nationwide mourning have been declared. They had been amongst 40 individuals who died in March on the migration heart in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, close to the border with Texas.

It will not be the primary time the Guatemalan president has had event to declare such a interval of mourning. He has performed so a minimum of twice earlier than: in December 2021, when a minimum of 40 Guatemalans died in a vehicular crash in Chiapas, Mexico, and in March of that very same yr, when greater than a dozen migrants had been shot and burned in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

So far this yr, the Guatemalan authorities have helped repatriate 58 useless nationals. In 2022, they introduced again 427 folks, 361 of whom had died within the United States. Many had been migrants making an attempt to cross the American border.

Mexico has detained 5 folks in reference to the fireplace in March. The prosecutor’s workplace can be anticipated to press legal fees in opposition to the chief of the National Institute of Migration.

Below, the stays of the migrants arriving at an air drive base in Guatemala City on Tuesday night time.

Francisco Gaspar Rojche Chiquival, 24, and Miguel Rojché Zapalu, 40, had been two of the boys laid to relaxation in Chicacao, a predominantly Indigenous neighborhood in southwest Guatemala. They had been uncle and nephew and had left for the United States on March 19.

Two of Mr. Rojché Zapalu’s daughters attended his wake.

Their family members mentioned they’d taken out loans to cowl funds to the coyotes — human traffickers — who demanded round $15,000 to $19,000 for every migrant. The males had been detained close to the U.S. border and had been anticipated to be deported again to Guatemala.

“He didn’t think he’d be back in a coffin,” mentioned Rosa Elvira Chiquival, 37, Mr. Rojché Zapalu’s widow. She recalled the household going out to hug him the morning he left. She has six kids, ages 3 to fifteen. “He said, ‘I have to go for you, to get ahead.’”

Mr. Rojché Zapalu’s burial in San Pedro Cutzán.

Mr. Rojche Chiquival’s burial.

“The president of Mexico has to look for the people responsible,” mentioned Aurelia Gutiérrez, 50, a relative of Mr. Rojche Chiquival, whereas a funeral band performed. “They’re not thieves. They look for a way to support the family because everything in Guatemala is expensive.”

The wake of Marcos Abdón Tziquin Cuc, 21, within the village of Paquilá.

Relatives and pals carrying the coffin of Gaspar Josué Cuc Tziquín.

Mr. Cuc Tziquín’s coffin was lowered into the bottom on the cemetery.

Friends and family members throughout Mr. Cuc Tziquín’s funeral.

Jody García contributed reporting.