"The hardest part for me was crossing the desert, she recounts, her voice trembling and her eyes watering after what she endured in July 2023. We had to stay among the garbage, risking being bitten by an animal, or being found by a cartel and losing our lives. Through tears, she recounts that the human trafficker who was transporting them didn't know the route well."
"As a result, they walked for three days under the scorching sun. We went a day and a half without water, without food... We couldn't even speak, our mouths were so dry, our knees couldn't take any more, we were completely broken, we were almost dying, confesses Astrid, who adds that one person in the group who couldn't carry on was abandoned to their fate in the desert."
Astrid, 29, crossed from Mexico into the United States through the Chihuahuan Desert with a group led by a coyote after paying $17,000 raised through family loans in Coatepeque, Guatemala. The group endured extreme heat, lack of food and water, walking for days, staying among garbage, threat of cartel violence, and abandonment of a member who could not continue. U.S. customs agents stopped the group near their destination, after which Astrid was kneeling, handcuffed, detained in Texas, chained at waist and ankles, and deported. In 2023, 79,697 Guatemalans were deported from the United States and Mexico, a recent high.
Read at english.elpais.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]