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Desperate young Guatemalans try to reach the US even after horrific deaths of migrating relatives

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COMITANCILLO, Guatemala (AP) — Every night for nearly two years, Glendy Aracely Ramírez has prayed by the altar in her parents’ mud-brick bedroom where, under a large crucifix, is a picture of her sister Blanca. The 23-year-old died alongside 50 other migrants in a smuggler’s tractor-trailer in Texas.

«I ask God for my family’s health and that I might get to the United States one day. My mom asks God that she won’t have to see another accident,» said Glendy, 17, who has already packed a small backpack for her own journey from the family’s home 8,900 feet (2,700 meters) up in Guatemala’s highlands.

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Her «coyote» postponed it for a few days because of a flare-up in violence among Mexican drug cartels that control migrants’ routes to the United States, but she is undeterred.

Guatemala-Desperate-Young-Migrants

Olivia Orozco Lopez cries as she holds a portrait of her late daughter Celestina Carolina during an interview in the Culvilla hamlet of Tejutla, Guatemala, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Carolina died asphyxiated alongside 50 other migrants in a smugglers’ trailer truck in San Antonio, Texas in June 2022.  (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Tens of thousands of youths from this region would rather take deadly risks — even repeatedly — than stay behind where they see no future. Blanca’s fatal journey was her third attempt to reach the U.S.

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«I want to go there, because here there are no opportunities, even though Mom says that I’ll suffer what Blanca did,» Glendy said as she sat with her mother, Filomena Crisóstomo, in their tidy dirt-floor courtyard. «I’d like to have a house, help my family and get ahead.»

The record-high numbers of migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have made migration a top concern in this U.S. presidential election year. Among those migrants, the largest group of unaccompanied minors has been from Guatemala — nearly 50,000 of the 137,000 encounters recorded by border authorities in the last fiscal year.

Most come from tiny hamlets in the predominantly Indigenous Western Highlands. Daily wages top out around the equivalent of $9, far below the supposed legal minimum. In tiny plots of brittle clay soil — often the only collateral for loans to pay smugglers’ fees that can reach $20,000 — many families grow corn and beans to eat.

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Little else sprouts from the steep mountainsides except for the exuberantly decorated, multi-story concrete homes built with remittances from loved ones in the United States — constant reminders of what’s possible if only one makes it «to the north.»

In the small town of Comitancillo, two murals serve as a different reminder — they’re memorials to the nearly two dozen local migrants who died in recent mass tragedies. They either asphyxiated in the trailer in San Antonio, Texas, in June 2022, or were shot and set afire by rogue police officers in Camargo, Mexico, in January 2021.

It took less than a week after the remains from the Camargo massacre were returned to Comitancillo for burial before the first surviving family member left for the U.S.

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And with a 17-year-old boy who made it to Florida this winter, now at least one relative has migrated from nearly all of the families since the massacre, said the Rev. José Luis González, a priest with the Jesuit Migration Network. The lone exception was an older man whose family was already north of the border; he died trying to make it back after being deported, González said.

«It’s an evident sign that the fear to stay is bigger than the fear to go,» said González, who started ministering to the affected families when they traveled some six hours to Guatemala’s capital for DNA tests to identify the remains.

Many families credit the Jesuit group for being the only institution that has stayed by their side, regularly traveling to Comitancillo to provide legal updates — nearly a dozen police officers were sentenced last fall in the Camargo case — as well psychological, humanitarian and pastoral assistance.

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On a recent morning, about 50 relatives of those lost either in Camargo or San Antonio gathered for a meeting with the Jesuit group that included workshops to process depression and grief. Most were women and children speaking Mam, one of Guatemala’s two dozen Mayan languages.

One of the handful of fathers at the meeting was Virgilio Ambrocio. The eldest of his eight children, Celestina Carolina, was making less than $90 a month as a housekeeper in Guatemala City and sending half of that back home to help feed her siblings. So she decided to try her luck in the United States, and died at 23 in the trailer.

«The hardest part is, who’s going to help us now,» Ambrocio said as dust swirled around his home. His wife, Olivia Orozco, wept silently, while holding a framed photo of a smiling Celestina.

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The primary driver of migration over the past 10 years is the inability to get jobs to pay for the most basic necessities, said Ursula Roldán, a researcher at Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala City. That’s exacerbated by the debts families incur to pay the smugglers, which would take 10 years’ worth of in-country wages to repay — making it crucial to get to the U.S. and send back remittances from far higher wages.

Rising violence in the Mexican regions bordering Guatemala is also pushing more migrants to head to the U.S. instead of working seasonal agricultural jobs there. Climate change is affecting even subsistence farming.

In their one-room home near Comitancillo, Reina Coronado tried to convince the eight children she had since she married at 16 that they didn’t have to risk their lives.

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Some went north anyway, including Aracely Florentina Marroquín, 21, who had completed high school like Blanca and, like her, felt she had wasted her family’s money in studying since she still couldn’t get a professional job.

The last thing she told Coronado was that she’d go only for four years and send money to build a kitchen, so she wouldn’t have to cook tortillas over an open fire. Next came the call from Texas that made Coronado cry for months. Today, she finds some comfort caring for two young daughters still living with her and the animals she raises.

«Even though it’s a struggle, one has to fight, to try to keep going,» Coronado said. «I go to work and that way the day, and the hard moments, pass. Sometimes I do it crying, but I trust in our Father, the Lord.»

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Marcelina Tomás has also been praying for strength since her oldest son, Anderson Pablo, was murdered in Camargo — and especially in recent months since his younger brother Emerson, 17, also went to the U.S.

Anderson was in 9th grade when the pandemic hit and he started working in the fields alongside his father. Their wages of around $6 a day were enough to afford tortillas each day for the family of 11, but not something to go with them, Tomás said. So she and her husband agreed to help Anderson get loans for the $16,000 smuggling fee.

Twelve days after Anderson, 16, left their home near Comitancillo, news of the Camargo massacre arrived via social media. Pregnant with her tenth child, Tomás, 37, had to leave her children with family members and spend a night away from home for the first time to undergo DNA tests in the capital that allowed Anderson’s partial remains to be identified and buried.

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«Only God knows what happened. And all for wanting to get ahead,» Tomás said. «I relied on him, and he treated his little siblings so well.»

Anderson had dissuaded Emerson from going along, saying he should stay in school a bit longer. According to Tomás, Emerson was heartbroken after his brother’s death; he enrolled in high school, but soon quit to work in a potato field.

Around the third anniversary of Anderson’s death, Emerson said he wanted to migrate, because many other youths had gone too. Tomás reminded him of Anderson’s fate, the tragedy in San Antonio, the neighbors’ children who died in the border deserts or in work accidents in the U.S.

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«‘No,’ he told me, ‘I’m going.’ And he went,» Tomás said by the altar where three pictures of Anderson stand by a crucifix, with a lit candle and a vase of calla lilies.

Anderson’s dream was to earn enough to move the family from their one-room, mud-brick house to a concrete one with separate spaces for his parents, his brothers and his sisters. They live in such a house now, built with donations received after his death.

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But nobody sleeps in the room with the altar. They’re keeping it as Anderson’s room.

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«Estamos abandonados por todo el mundo»: entrevista al pediatra palestino que operó, salvo vidas y lo perdió todo

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Imad Kabaja, médico pediatra palestino, doctor en un hospital de Gaza, educado en Bolivia, sufrió la guerra en la Franja. Sin medios, sin sueldo, operó, salvo vidas, se ocupó de los niños huérfanos y lo perdió todo. Su hospital fue atacado durante el conflicto con Israel, desatado tras el ataque de Hamas, el 7 de octubre.

Este fue su testimonio cuando el presidente Donald Trump anunció que quiere ocupar Gaza para convertirlo en una suerte de Costa Azul en medio de una frágil tregua en Gaza.

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Hoy el doctor Imad vive en una carpa, junto a su esposa odontóloga y sus tres hijos. Su casa, sus consultorios, todo ha sido absolutamente destruido por las bombas. Camina tres horas para llegar a su trabajo.

-Doctor Imad, ¿cómo es la vida en Gaza hoy?

-La verdad es que la vida en Gaza es un infierno total. Vivir en Gaza es muy, muy difícil. Aquí recién paró la guerra, paró la sangre. Pero lo malo ahora es que estamos luchando para sobrevivir. Ahora estamos en invierno, mucho frío. Llevamos 10 días de lluvia, un barro casi todas las horas. Y como todos saben, toda Gaza ya está destruida. Ya no tenemos casa. ¡Todos vivimos en carpas! Esas carpas hechas con lo que podíamos conseguir. La verdad, en la carpa no podemos cuidarnos ni de la lluvia, ni del frío. Pero no tenemos más que esto.

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-Otra cosa: la comida. Los anteriores meses pasados no encontramos nada. Ni siquiera para comprar. No había comida, y la comida que había, como es muy poca, era demasiado cara. Ahora entra la comida. Pero lo malo es que no tenemos dinero para comprar esta comida.

-¿Entra ayuda humanitaria tras la tregua? ¿Distribuyen ayuda gratuita?

Imad Kabaja carga un bebito en un hospital de Gaza. Foto: Gentileza

-La ayuda que entra es muy poca, muy poca. Estamos hablando de casi 3.000.000 personas, que, a través de la guerra, han perdido todo. Un ejemplo soy yo. Perdí mi casa, perdí mi consultorio. Mi mujer era una odontóloga, también perdió su consultorio. Los fondos de vida que teníamos todos los meses, perdidos. No tenemos casi nada. A toda la gente le pasa lo mismo. Toda la gente no tiene trabajo, no tiene sueldo. Entonces, ¿con qué se va a comprar? Y la ayuda que entra, ni siquiera ayuda a sobrevivir. Es muy, muy poca.

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-¿Imad, usted está trabajando en el hospital de médico?

-Yo trabajo en el hospital de médico. Pero trabajo y no hay sueldos. Nosotros hoy día, durante un año y medio casi, trabajamos sin sueldos.

-Sin dinero. Yo trabajo sin dinero. Algunas veces no puedo llegar a mi trabajo porque tengo que pagar dinero para ir a mi trabajo y subirme a un taxi y no tengo con qué. Entonces, tengo que caminar como dos, tres horas y llegar a mi trabajo.

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Imad Kabaja junto a un colega. Foto: GentilezaImad Kabaja junto a un colega. Foto: Gentileza

¿Gaza convertida en la Costa Azul?

-¿Cuál es la sensación que ustedes tienen frente a este proyecto de Donald Trump de convertir a Gaza en una suerte de Costa Azul y ustedes, a vivir a Jordania o a Egipto u otros países?

-Nosotros aquí en Gaza nunca dejamos nuestra tierra. Nuestra tierra es más importante que nuestra vida. Nuestra tierra es más importante que nuestra felicidad. Esta tierra es la tierra de nuestros abuelos, de nuestros padres, de nosotros y de nuestros hijos. Nunca vamos a aceptar. Nosotros, durante un año y medio de bombardeo, durante todos los días, hubo miles y miles de muertos, desaparecidos.

-¿Cómo va a poder reconstruir su casa? ¿Cómo va a poder reconstruir su trabajo? ¿Cómo es su futuro si el alto el fuego continúa?

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-La verdad, sin ayuda de alguien, nunca voy a poder volver a mi casa. Mi casa, que era una casa buena, una casa bonita. Era la casa de nuestros sueños. Yo y mi mujer hemos trabajado, luchando durante 10 años, tratando de no gastar mucho para tener nuestra casa, la casa de nuestros hijos. Eso no es fácil para volver a hacerla, la verdad. Para mí es difícil. Ahora solamente pienso en la comida del día. No pienso en la casa ni en mi consultorio. No hay tiempo de pensar en casa. Yo ahora solamente estoy pensando en una buena carpa para cuidar a mis hijos. No pensando en la casa, la verdad.

-¿Qué cree que pasará con la guerra?

-Yo primero pienso es que termine la guerra. Dios quiera que la tregua continúe y no recomience por cualquier razón.

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-¿Ustedes sienten que va a llegar la solidaridad?

-Nosotros, ¿qué sentimos? Que estamos abandonados por todo el mundo.

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Uruguay deja de reconocer a Edmundo González como presidente electo en Venezuela

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Tras la asunción del nuevo presidente Yamandú Orsi, Uruguay cambia su posición sobre Venezuela al no reconocer ni a Nicolás Maduro ni a Edmundo González Urrutia como presidentes electos del país sudamericano.

Así lo aclaró Mario Lubetkin, nuevo ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Uruguay en el gobierno de centroizquierda del presidente Orsi, según el sitio web del diario español El Mundo.

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«No reconocemos ni a Maduro ni al presidente que afirmó haber triunfado según las actas que mostró en internet», dijo el canciller, y agregó que «si existen los acuerdos de paz de Oslo (de 1993, entre Israel y la Organización para la Liberación de Palestina, la OLP), ¿por qué no pueden existir los de Montevideo (sobre Venezuela)?».

El gobierno anterior de Luis Lacalle Pou había reconocido, en cambio, a González como presidente electo, quien había recibido enfático apoyo del expresidente en Montevideo el 4 de enero.

Durante la entrevista, Lubetkin fue consultado sobre quién es, para el nuevo gobierno uruguayo, el presidente de Venezuela.

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Ante esta pregunta, el funcionario dijo que la nueva administración no reconoce «la situación en función de cómo se dio el proceso electoral. Eso no cambia».

Y añadió: «Tenemos, sí, un problema: las relaciones entre Uruguay y Venezuela están a cero, las embajadas están casi cerradas. ¿Qué hacemos con los miles de uruguayos que están en Venezuela? ¿Quién los protege? Alguien me preguntó si esto significa el restablecimiento de relaciones diplomáticas y mi respuesta es no».

A continuación, rechazó la idea de que Venezuela no tenga presidente. No diría eso porque hay una realidad que controla el país», dijo y argumentó: «Hay un control preciso del manejo del Estado, de la economía. Eso no significa el reconocimiento».

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Qué había dicho Lacalle Pou sobre Edmundo González Urrutia

El 2 de agosto de 2024, pocos días después de los fallidos comicios en Venezuela, el ex canciller uruguayo Omar Paganini escribió en redes sociales: «En función de la evidencia abrumadora, resulta claro para Uruguay que Edmundo González Urrutia obtuvo la mayoría de votos en las elecciones presidenciales de Venezuela. Esperamos que la voluntad del pueblo venezolano sea respetada».

El presidente Luis Lacalle Pou reposteó inmediatamente el mensaje de Paganini en su cuenta en X y luego, en declaraciones a la prensa expresó: «Si no mostrás los documentos, es obvio que algo raro hay. Pero, además, no estamos hablando de alguien que tiene antecedentes democráticos. Yo he dicho que Venezuela es una dictadura y lo sostengo».

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Asimismo, Lacalle Pou puntualizó que es «indefendible» lo que está pasando y dijo que es increíble «cómo el poder puede cegar tanto a alguien»

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White House backs Israel’s decision to halt Gaza aid shipments until Hamas accepts ceasefire extension

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The White House is supporting the Israeli government’s decision to block aid to Gaza until Hamas leaders agree to a ceasefire extension, according to a newly-released statement.

In a statement obtained by Fox News on Sunday, National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said that Israel has «negotiated in good faith since the beginning of this administration to ensure the release of hostages held captive by Hamas terrorists.»

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«We will support their decision on next steps given Hamas has indicated it’s no longer interested in a negotiated ceasefire,» Hughes added.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli officials announced that they are stopping the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip and warned Hamas it would face «additional consequences» if it does not accept a new proposal for an extended ceasefire.

ISRAEL AGREES TO TRUMP ENVOY’S TEMPORARY GAZA CEASEFIRE EXTENSION PROPOSAL AS FIRST PHASE EXPIRES: REPORTS

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 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on Dec. 9, 2024. (Maya Alleruzzo/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

«With the conclusion of the 1st stage of the hostages deal and in light of Hamas’ refusal to accept the [U.S. Mideast envoy Steve] Witkoff framework for the continuation of the talks, to which Israel agreed, PM Netanyahu decided: as of this morning, entry of all goods & supplies to the Gaza Strip be halted,» Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on X.

«Israel will not allow a ceasefire without a release of our hostages. If Hamas persists in its refusal, there will be additional consequences,» the post added.

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Hamas accused Israel of attempting to derail the fragile truce, saying its decision to cut off aid was «cheap extortion, a war crime and a blatant attack on the (ceasefire) agreement.»

«The occupation’s announcement of halting the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip is yet another confirmation of its failure to uphold its commitments and its evasion of obligations under the ceasefire agreement,» Hamas said in a statement. «This reflects its ugly criminal face and constitutes a continuation of the genocide against our people, as well as an act of blackmail targeting an entire population by depriving them of food, water, and medicine.»

The first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which included an uptick in humanitarian assistance, expired on Saturday. The two sides have not yet negotiated the second phase, in which Hamas was called to release dozens of remaining hostages in return for an Israeli pullout and a permanent ceasefire.

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Hamas terrorists

Hamas terrorists take up positions ahead of a hostage release in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP)

An Israeli official said the decision to suspend aid was made in coordination with the Trump administration.

Israeli officials said earlier on Sunday that they support a proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover, or April 20. They said the proposal came from the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Under that deal, Hamas would release half the hostages on the first day and the remainder when an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire, according to Netanyahu’s office.

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In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israeli also pulled back forces from most of Gaza and allowed a surge of humanitarian aid to enter the region.

But the first phase also featured various disputes, as each side accused the other of violating the ceasefire.

Hamas now says Israel committed another violation by suspending aid. The terror group said deliveries were supposed to continue as the two sides negotiated the second phase of the ceasefire.

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HAMAS RELEASES MORE HOSTAGES IN EXCHANGE FOR MORE THAN 600  PALESTINIAN PRISONERS AS PART OF CEASEFIRE DEAL

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Hamas fighters stand in formation as Palestinians gather on a street to watch the handover of three Israeli hostages to a Red Cross team in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on Feb. 8, 2025. (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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The war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people and abducting more than 251. Hamas still has 59 hostages, 32 of whom are believed to be dead.

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Israel’s offensive into Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run government’s Gaza Health Ministry. It does not specify how many of the dead were terrorists or civilians.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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