GUATEMALA CITY (AP) – The body of a 15-year-old migrant was brought home Friday, nearly a month after he died in the hot, dry brushland of southern Texas and became a symbol for the perils facing unaccompanied children who have been flooding illegally into the U.S.
The remains of Gilberto Francisco Ramos Juarez were flown to Guatemala City in a cargo plane and turned over to his father at the airport’s small chapel.
Gilberto’s father, Francisco Ramos, then took the gray and silver coffin with a photo of the boy attached to it in a pickup truck to his mountain hometown of San Jose de las Flores, where the family planned to hold a wake for him Friday night. He was to be buried Saturday.
“I’m really sad because of his death,” Ramos said while holding a photograph of his son standing next to a small wooden horse.
The man, who dressed in all black and wore a black hat, traveled 200 miles to Guatemala City accompanied by his brothers. He said the boy’s mother was too ill to make the nine-hour journey.