13-year-old migrant who died in the trailer in San Antonio is buried

• Migrant who died in the San Antonio, Texas trailer is buried.
• Pascual Melvin Guachiac Sipac was laid to rest in Guatemala.
• He was 13 years old and died from suffocation.

The family and friends of a 13-year-old Guatemalan boy gave him his last goodbye on Saturday. He was buried in the western part of the country after he asphyxiated in the back of a trailer in  Texas along with 52 other migrants, according to the EFE agency and Sin embargo.

With tears and pain Pascual Melvin Guachiac Sipac was buried in the municipality of Nahualá, in the province of Sololá, about 150 kilometers west of Guatemala City. In June, the 13-year-old tried to emigrate to the United States to escape poverty in his indigenous town in Guatemala but he suffocated to death in a terrible tragedy where 52 other people also lost their lives.

PASCUAL MELVIN GUACHIAC SIPAC’S FUNERAL

Guachiac Sipac’s gray coffin was buried at the stroke of noon in the local cemetery after his family watched over him during the last hours accompanied by more than a hundred people. The 13-year-old is the first fatality from the Texas tragedy repatriated to Guatemala. His remains arrived in the Central American country yesterday at noon.

«I have no words,» Guachiac Sipac’s father, Casimiro Guachiac, who was on the verge of tears, told reporters on Friday at the air terminal where he was waiting for his son’s remains to arrive. The Guatemalan government confirmed last week that there were 22 nationals who lost their lives in the tragedy. They suffocated in a truck that was abandoned by human traffickers on a highway in San Antonio, Texas.

HOW MANY DIED IN THE TRUCK?

After receiving «erroneous» data from the authorities in Texas, on Friday the government headed by the retired doctor and surgeon, Alejandro Giammattei, said that there were actually 21 people of Guatemalan nationality who died in the tragedy. The 21 Guatemalans are part of the group of at least 53 migrants, including Mexicans and Hondurans, who suffocated to death in the trailer, where they were driven by human traffickers.

Local authorities assume that the migrants remained locked in the truck for several hours, in what has been considered the greatest human trafficking tragedy in recent decades in the United States. On Saturday, two other victims will arrive in Guatemala — Juan Wilmer Tulul Tepaz, 14, and Jonny Tziquin Tzoc, 17 — who also asphyxiated in Texas and are also originally from Sololá. Filed Under: San Antonio migrant buried

WHAT WAS THE GOODBYE LIKE?

With a band and black and white balloons, thousands of people from various communities paid tribute to the boy on Friday night at the same school where he used to play during recess and where he received his primary education and one year of basic education. On Saturday, hundreds of people came to his house to be with his family. While the women cooked meat in red sauce with rice and potatoes and corn tamales wrapped in banana leaves, the men listened to the speeches and messages that authorities and religious figures gave to the family.

The community lives mostly on remittances and agriculture with new two-story houses among cornfields that contrast with the old adobe buildings. When they learned of the boy’s death, they have been supporting the family and helping them cook and clean. On Saturday, large numbers of people served food and cleaned up so mourners could grieve. Filed Under: San Antonio migrant buried