The bodies of a man and his young daughter who drowned while trying to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico to the United States were returned on Sunday to their native El Salvador.
A shocking photo of the lifeless bodies of Oscar Alberto Martinez, who was 25, and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria lying face down in the river fueled concern and outrage around the world, with some people blaming the US crackdown on border crossings for their deaths.
Hearses accompanied by a long caravan brought the two corpses to the town of La Hachadura, near the border with Guatemala. Mario Duran, the Salvadoran Minister of government, was on hand to receive the remains.
The two victims are to be transferred to a cemetery in southern San Salvador, to be buried after a day-long vigil.
The two asylum-seekers drowned on June 23 while trying to cross the Rio Grande into Texas, near the city of Brownsville, as the child’s mother, Tania Vanessa Avalos, watched helplessly from the river bank.