Mexico Migrant Massacre Linked to Sophisticated Guatemala Smuggling Ring
GUATEMALA
/4 FEB 2022 BY ALEX PAPADOVASSILAKIS
A former Guatemala mayor and his family have been accused of smuggling more than a dozen migrants later massacred in Mexico, in a case that exposes the sophistication and lucrative business of human smugglers on the border between the two countries.
Ramiro Coronado Pérez, the former mayor of Comitancillo, a town in western Guatemala, is accused of leading the migrant smuggling ring alongside his brother, David Coronado Pérez, a 2019 mayoral candidate in the same town. The Attorney General's Office has charged both individuals with migrant smuggling and obstruction of justice, according to a statement by the Attorney General's Office. Prosecutors have accused them of coordinating the trip that ended in the deaths of 15 Guatemalan migrants last year. Authorities discovered the victims on January 22 in two burnt-out vehicles along the US-Mexico border. They had been shot and killed before their remains were burned and left behind. A dozen officers of an elite Mexico police unit have been accused of participating in the massacre.
Prosecutors said in the statement that David Coronado Pérez recruited migrants, working with his son, who allegedly guided them on the journey north. His son was also killed in the massacre.
In a series of raids in Comitancillo in late January, Guatemalan authorities arrested 10 suspected members of the group on charges of migrant trafficking, money laundering, obstruction of justice and other crimes. The detainees included David Coronado Pérez and one of his daughters, alongside two sons of former mayor Ramiro Coronado, who evaded capture and has since been declared a fugitive, according to lead prosecutor Stuardo Campo.
More:
https://insightcrime.org/news/mexico-migrant-massacre-guatemala-smuggling/
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