Honduras repatriates bodies of migrants who died in Texas

Tegucigalpa, Jul 22 (EFE).- The bodies of six Hondurans who died last month along with 47 other migrants inside an overheated tractor-trailer in Texas were returned to the Central American nation Friday, the government said.

The remains of Alejandro Miguel Andino, Fernando Jose Redondo, Margie Tamara Paz, Adela Betulia Ramirez Quezada, Jazmin Nayarith Bueso Nuñez and Belkis Esmeralda Anariba arrived in the northern city of San Pedro Sula aboard a commercial flight, the foreign ministry said.

“We deeply regret that our Honduran brothers and sisters are victims of that migrant trafficking, that they suffer the cruelty of those criminal groups who violate people’s rights,” Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina said.

The 53 migrants, including people from Mexico and Guatemala, succumbed to heat and lack of air after the traffickers they paid to get them into the United States abandoned the tractor-trailer in San Antonio, where it was found on June 27.

Reina said that the government was “working arduously” to improve conditions inside Honduras to reduce pressure on people to emigrate in search of better lives.

President Xiomara Castro’s administration “is seeking more investment in health, education, greater economic growth, better security, because they are the only ways to change conditions and opportunities,” the foreign minister said.

The Honduran government has repatriated more than a score of bodies so far this year and the remains of upwards of 50 others are waiting to be brought home, the foreign ministry said. EFE ac/dr