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Caption,
One of the victims would be Maynor Yasir Suazo Sandoval, a native of Honduras.
Article information
- Author, Editorial
- Scroll, BBC News World
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March 27, 2024
The six workers who disappeared after the naval accident that brought down the Francis Scott Key bridge, in the city of Baltimore, on the east coast of the United States, were all Latino immigrants.
The governments of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras confirmed the disappearances through their respective spokespersons.
The United States Coast Guard reported that, given the time elapsed and the temperature of the water in which they fell, they are presumed dead.
The rescue mission became one of recovery.
Maryland authorities reported this Wednesday that teams of divers found the bodies of two of the victims, although they did not reveal their identity.
Previously, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, assured that there were three Mexican victims: one injured, who was being treated, and two missing.
“We have the data, but we are not going to give information because the relatives asked that this matter be handled with caution,” he explained.
The six men worked for Brawn Builders, a local contractor that maintains bridges in the state of Maryland.
Jesús Campos, who has worked for the company on the bridge and knows members of the team, said they told him that when the accident occurred some of them were on break in their trucks.
“I was there a month ago, and I know what it feels like when the trucks go by,” he told the Associated Press.
“Imagine knowing you’re falling. It’s so hard, you wouldn’t know what to do.”
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Caption,
Miguel Luna is believed to be on the list of the six dead.
The victims
Among the six workers presumed dead is Miguel Luna, who had been working for the construction company for about 15 years, his family said.
Luna is from El Salvador and a father of three, according to Gustavo Torres, the executive director of the Latino pro-immigrant organization CASA.
“He was a long-time member of our CASA family, which adds a deeper level of sadness to this already unfortunate situation,” he told The Washington Post.
Marvin Luna, one of Miguel’s sons, told the same newspaper that he knew his father was working that morning, but that he did not find out what had happened until some friends called him and told him: “The bridge is no longer there.” “.
The second victim identified is Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, a native of the department of Santa Bárbara, Honduras, according to the Honduran newspaper El Heraldo.
Sandoval’s brother spoke to US network NBC News and said he had been informed of her disappearance hours after the bridge collapsed.
“The hope is that we can see the body,” he said. “We want to see him, find him, know if he is dead because we don’t know anything.”
Caption,
The six missing people were working repairing the asphalt of the collapsed bridge.
It is also believed that there are two Guatemalans among the victims, one 26 years old and another 35 years old, according to information provided by the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry.
An area with a high Latino population
Caption,
Father Ako Walker was accompanying the families of the missing throughout Tuesday.
Father Ako Walker, of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in a Baltimore neighborhood, said he spent the day accompanying the families of the missing workers, waiting for news while rescue teams searched for them in the waters of the Patapsco River, where FBI divers used robotic cameras in search of any trace.
Walker delivered a brief sermon in Spanish.
This area of Baltimore has a large immigrant population from Latin America, often employed in the toughest jobs, like the one performed by the missing workers.
Walker emphasized that fact: “Six of them are Latino,” he said, adding that the impact would be felt especially throughout the Spanish-speaking community.
“It has been difficult for the families,” he added. “There have been a lot of tears.”
At Mount Olive Church, near the crash site, a vigil was held for the missing and their families.
There, Susana Vargas, a migrant rights activist, told the BBC that “many Latinos live in this area who work in construction and in restaurants.”
“Whenever there is a tragedy, [las víctimas] They are the migrants. “We are the ones who do this type of work.”
Baltimore and its port are a vital point for the American economy and its transit of goods.
Caption,
A vigil was held in the city of Baltimore on Tuesday for those missing in the impact.
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