A Tragedy In A Semi-Truck

Hi, this is Christina and Carman and this is another episode of his Spooky Tales, a podcast for all things spooky, hunting, places, myths, legends, true crime in Latin America. But today today is a very serious episode. You know, once in a while, we wouldn't be who we are if we didn't come up with like, do you remember when this happened? Because we all need to know about this type situation, And that's what's happening today. Yeah, And I mean it's a true crime story, and true crime is bigger than true crime, right, This is a true crime story that is about immigration and how the United States increasingly harsh immigration policies put lives in danger. Right, That's what it boils down to at the end of the day, and as well as obviously the people responsible directly responsible. But people wouldn't take these dangerous routes into United States if they were forced to write. Right, if you are a patron member at the lowest tier, you just had an extra twenty six minutes of us talking about our I don't know, random things. Bad Bunny came up, Bad Bunny again again, again again, and I talked about the movie my kids are making, and yeah, you get that the lowest tier, which is a dollar a month. So okay, and so let's get into it, all right. So I want to preface this by saying that I don't think I've cried more researching and writing notes, but I felt like it was important to revisit this tragic day because in doing that, we honor the lives that were lost, their sacrifices, and the grief that we all share, knowing that this could have been us or our loved ones, knowing that many of us and our loved ones have made similar journeys. And with that being said, this is probably one of our heaviest true crime stories, So take care while listening or skip if you have to. And also quick shout out to Elliott Woods of the Texas Monthly, who took over two years to investigate further than this tragic day and the initial headlines from that day and put together the first full account of it and followed some of the survivors and their families, the complexities of the day and the aftermath. Everyone should read the article. It was beautifully, beautifully written, and it'll be linked in the show notes as well as the other sources for today's episode. On June twenty seventh, twenty twenty two, at approximately six pm, Roberto Quintero and his crew were working when they heard screams and rushed towards the commotion, which took them to Quintana Road in South San Antonio, Texas. There they found a girl staggering near a semi truck. Once it got to the semi truck, they found bodies upon bodies, not moving, with swollen faces and blue lips. What about the call nine one one exclaiming there was an eighteen wheeler with about twenty dead people in the back. There's more than twenty people. There's fifty people, all the while the girl could be her screaming in the background. In total, fifty three migrants found in the trailer died that day, twenty six Mexicans, twenty one Guatemalans, and six Endurance. And this left us, many of us, with questions. Who can be blamed for this horrible incident that's been described as the deadliest immigration related disaster. The US for its deadly immigration policies, the smugglers, the med fuel driver working for the smugglers, the extremely hot Texan summer. I don't know. So that morning again On June twenty seven, twenty twenty two, about twenty four migrants from Mexico, Guatemala and on with us, including brothers Bergayi and Mariano Santiago e Bolito from southern Mexico, as well as a few children and women, had been taken by smugglers to a stash house and had been there for over two days. Twenty four people in a cramped and single room with zero furniture and almost no room for anyone to lie down. There was nowhere to bathe or shower, and the one toilet that was there was hello grimy. They had run out of the little food and bottled water that was given to them by the smugglers, and everyone was wondering why they were still there, But the smugglers were worried that a local would spot them at informed authorities, so they forbathed the migrants from leaving the stash house for any reason, because they had just lost two stash houses earlier that month. Finally, a big white box truck showed up to the stash house to pick the migrants up, but this was hardly an improvement in treatment for the migrants. The men who showed up to pick them up, wore masks and screened orders at them. They took their phone and a few water bottles the migrants had been able to refill from the sink. The cargo area was already packed with migrants who had been staying at other stash houses, and the truck drove for about ten minutes, taking the migrants to the semi truck, which would then take them across the border. Just like in the white truck, there were already groups of people in the trailer of the semi truck. In total, there were more than sixty people in the trailer. The brothers Begaye and Mariano settled by a wall around the middle of the trailer, and next to them were three women from a small town in Guatemala, one who was hoping to join her sister in Minnesota. The youngest and the trailer were a pair of cousins, also from Guatemala, who were thirteen and fourteen so young, who were also hoping to join their relatives. The older cousin was a huge fan of Messi and dreamed of being a professional soccer player one day, but his goal was to earn money to help his mom care for his younger siblings back home. The oldest in the trailer was a fifty five year old construction worker who had been living in Arkansas for over twenty years, but had gone back to Mexico to visit family and was now on his way back to his wife, three kids and four grandkids. Wow, and you know what, I died in twenty twenty two. Less people were coming and going like that because when we were kids, it was so normal for so many of our uncles to come and go. I mean our grandparents did it too. Yeah, and I feel like twenty twenty two was even more difficult to do this. Yeah. And I didn't find the reasons why he went, but could have been anything. Maybe his mom died. A lot of people go back for finder rolls or sick relatives, who knows, but he had been living here for twenty years before that, twenty years. Towards the back doors of the trailer was a pair of siblings in their twenties, also from Guatemala. The brother and sister had been caring for eighteen girl who they had met along their journey to the border, and she sat between them because they were comforting her. And this was a common experience right older migrants usually care for younger ones who are traveling alone. Reminds me of sol Yeah. Even the stash house part remind me of Soliton because he describes similar circumstances. I mean, didn't our mom stay in a slash house? I think she did. Yeah. Also in the trailer were a pair of cousins from Mexico who were caring for an eighteen year old boy from Mexico City whose mom had asked them to watch out for him. Among the group was also a twenty seven year old woman from Ondouras who was around twelve weeks pregnant. That morning, she had been able to call her mom, who was living in La and she had told her she would see her soon. The group spread out as much as they could, but they were pretty cramped in there and became unbearable quickly. It was almost one hundred degrees outside, making the air inside the trailer too hot. Almost as soon as the doors were closed and the latches from the outside were closed as well. Just before two pm, the semi truck set off and the plan was to arrive in San Antonio in a little over three hours, where the migrants would then go their separate ways to their final destinations, many with jobs already lined up and family to reunite with. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. The smugglers associated with this incident, or Felippe or Luna Torres and Jose Martinez or Vera, and Felippe was the one who maintained contact with the cartel. And I guess I'll explain really quick for anyone who doesn't know the current situation in the border for migrants. So cartel's control regies in Mexico obviously, right, and in Novo Lao, where brothers Begay and Mariano as well as other migrants found themselves that day to cross into the United States though, so they were crossing from Novolo into into Texas, and so they're the is in control. And there are different, right, different cartels, different in different areas. Yeah, the cartels themselves are not usually involved in the logistics of smuggling and moving people. That's done by smaller organizations who function more like independent contractors. While the cartels in this case, the they extort money from every migrant trying to cross the border. And I feel like this that has gotten worse as time has gone on, because this wasn't a thing and saying, and the article gets into that. We I in my note, I don't really get into it, but I figured we would talk about it. But yeah, this whole process, this whole method of migrating, has only gone worse as deterrent methods have been used by border patrol, pushing migrants more and more out like into dangerous situations, and as militarization of the border has gone worse and the war on drugt has gone worse. Things got worse hat through NAFTA. All of these conditions helped put cartels in control, which worsened the danger that my vents are facing over the years. Right exactly, so, the cartels know everyone trying to cross, and they require the use of code words to know that migrants are using their approved smugglers, and anyone who's not using an approved smuggler is basically usually kidnapped by cartels or faces other dangers. Right. And the smugglers also use the code words to help them keep track of their clients. Felippe and Jose use the code word zero five zero flacco and this was the code that the brothers Gayi and Mariano were using. Okay, so that was just a little like brief explanation m HM. Felippe and Jose were both undocumented Mexicans and had been working as smugglers for years separately until they joined forces around twenty nineteen to capitalize on attacking tactic known as a book smuggling, which is to move a large amount of people in commercial vehicles like semi trucks, which is you know what happened here, And that meant that a smuggling became bigger and more popular after NAFTA, because commercial trucking between the US and Mexico became a bigger thing after n af After okay, smugglers like Felippe and Jose would forge documents describing the contents of the trailers, and they would use things like detergents coffee meat sizzings to hide the scent of hidden passengers from scent detecting dogs, which is hard to trick those dogs their way. Since twenty twenty one, six of Felipe and Hoss operations had been busted by dogs. But even with being busted six times, Felippe and Jose had successfully moved thousands of people through the border checkpoints since working together, but not in the hands on kind of way because they outsourced most of the work. Wow. Yeah, there's a whole operation. Yeah, and of course there is. I just didn't like realize it, you know. Yeah. The man who Felippe and Jose used to maintain their fleet of semi trucks and trailers was another undocumented Mexican man named Juan de Luna Bilbao, who was working as a car mechanic and got into business with them unintentionally after one of his friends got him like a side gig working on Hosse's personal car. Then he kind of just fell into it with them. Right When Felippe and Jose had a smuggling operation going on, they would have Huan move the semi truck that they were going to use that day from the storage lot to the ending point of the operation and then back. He would move it back to the storage law afterwards, and he would get paid five hundred dollars for every successful operation. I feel like that's not enough. No, but all he was doing was fixing the trucks and moving the ic. Yeah. Okay, So on June twenty seventh, around five am, Jose called Huan and asked him to take a red tractor hooked to a fifty three foot white trailer to one of their usual truck stops and informed him that their driver was already on his way. So Juan did, and when he got there, he performed the usual maintenance checks and he sprinkled meat seasoning and the trailer. Then took pictures of the ID numbers of the truck and trailer so Pelippe and Jose could forge the necessary paperwork to get through the checkpoint. Noted that the refrigeration unit in the trailer was malfunctioning, and he had actually been sharing this concern with Whole several months, saying he didn't know how to fix the issue, And three days before the operation, Juan had Texan Josset a video of the unit showing him that it wasn't working, and Hose said he would get someone to look at it, but never did. Juan's main concerns, though, were one that the temperature would raise red flags at the border checkpoint because of paperwork specified a certain temperature setting for whatever they were supposedly hauling, right yeah, And the other concern was that the temperature was higher and wouldn't cool down and then worse the other concern without without a working refrigeration unit, the Texas Heat June Texas heat would be dangerous for the passengers, But Kuan had been told to not question orders, so ultimately he did what he was told. He delivered the trailer, filled it with diesel, and walked away. Shortly after Juan walked away, Christian Martinez and Omero Samorano arrived at the truck stop. Christian had been working for Rose and Felippe for only a few months, and his tasks included finding and hiring commercially licensed truck drivers who were US citizens or permanent residents, since they had to be able to get through the border checkpoints right and who were also willing to risk getting arrested, and to bring the person who'd be driving the semi truck to the truck stop. Then he would be the middleman communicating with the driver and the bosses Jsse and Philippe during the operation. Ometo was a driver who would be transporting the migrants. Christian had never made the kind of money he was making now that he was working for Josse and Phelippe. After a driver successfully made it to San Antonio, with a load of migrants. Kistan would be paid five thousand dollars and in less than four months he had already made thirty five thousand. Wow. So he had made this trip several times. And well, he wasn't the driver. He he contracted the drivers and then he would take now the drivers to the spot where the semi truck to the truck stop. Basically he made at least thirty five thousand doing this. Yeah. And then he was the MetalMan, maintaining communication between the driver and then the ring leaders. I guess he could say Jossein Peilippe. So yeah, and he had made thirty five thousand dollars in the four months he'd been working for them. Wow. Before that, Christian had been homeless, living in his car. He had difficulties finding and maintaining employment because he had severe cognitive disabilities and never learned to read. And I guess read like on a level like he could text and communicate, but read a level of literacy. I guess yeah. Earlier that morning, when Christian arrived to pick Ometo up, he found O Metal smoking meth with his girlfriend. But this was normal, nothing out of the ordinary. Both of them often used stimulants like met and cocaine to stay awake during overnight halls. By eleven am, Ometal arrived at the north end of Laredo to await further instructions. This was routine because drivers weren't sent directly to the stash houses in order to avoid drawing attention. A bit before one pm, Ometal received a Google Maps pin from Christian where the white box truck was located. Earlier I mentioned the migrants were loaded onto this white box truck. Yeah, and then from there on he would be taken into San Antonio. About an hour later, Ometal arrived to the border checkpoint and got through with no issues since the border patrol agent didn't even check his paperwork. By this point, the airror inside the trailer was unbearable, but the migrants had been warned to not make any noises so as to not alert the border patrol of the presence. Ometal kept heading north to San Antonio, and by this time the heat inside the trailer had only gotten worse and had likely reached temperatures higher than one hundred and forty degrees. Oh my god. The sixty four migrants in the trailer could no longer handle it. Mariano and beg Aye were trying their best to maintain their composure as they heard everyone screaming around them. In addition to the unbearable heat, everyone's eyes were burning and their bodies were itchy because of the meat seasoning that quant had sprinkled everywhere. Everyone had grown desperate and they started scrambling and tripping over each other looking for any kind of opening to let air in. But all the screaming and movement only made things worse because it generated more heat and depleted the already low oxygen. There was so much sweat on the floor of the trailer that when Mariano tried to stand, he started sliding, And even then, Mariano managed to make his way to the front of the trailer, where he tried to get Ometo's attention by slamming the wall with his fists to Novel, and he also managed his way back to his brother Begay through the crowd. Is it like, I mean, I've never been in a truck like this, so like could he really not hear them or was he just like told to ignore them? No, he heard them, He heard them, Yeah he did. Yeah. So later during the criminal proceedings, it was discovered that Ometo had heard the noises from the trailer. Oh my god. Around three twenty pm, Ometo had called Christian letting him know that he stopped to buy a charger for his phone, and then he stopped two more times because he heard the screaming and the banging on the trailer walls. It was likely he knew something was wrong because he had tried to reset the refrigeration unit. He tried to fix the issue like when he stopped, but he accidentally made things worse and the unit started blowing hot air. Oh my god, and the migrants felt a sudden rush of heat, and he heard them. He heard the migrants screaming, and he shouted, we're almost there at them. Around five point thirty pm, Ometo connected with a pickup that was part of the operation and was to take him to the drop off spot on Quintana Road in San Antonio, and Ometo was worried now, so he called Christian again, saying they're screaming and banging real bad, and he asked Kistan what to do. So Kristian, as a middleman, then asked the bosses Felippe and Josse what to do. And they replied saying what's done is done. Don't stop again. Meanwhile, inside the trailer, the migrants were growing desperate, to the point that some had clawed at the walls and ripped off chunks of the insulation in an attempt to get fresh air, which of course didn't work right. Others had formed the prayer circle in the middle of the trailer. This is a part where I started crying when I was writing the notes. My mind you had already been crying. Yeah, okay, because the article goes in depth about Begayi's and Mariano's not their journey into the US, but their like lives before they came and why they decided to come to the US. So yeah, yeah, it's a lot. And another migrant who managed to not have their phone confiscated by the smugglers, called someone in desperation, pleading them to save them. Another man was begging for water for his dying wife, and the pair of siblings who were caring for the teen girl for fanning her with their pocket bibles. Another woman who managed to hold onto her bottle of water, shared her last drops of water with the siblings on La Tingirl, and soon the migrants began dying. They were suffering from extreme dehydration, to the point that they stopped sweating and their skin turned hot to the touch. They were losing electrolytes fast, which causes symptoms like muscle cramps, brain swelling, nausea, loss of coordination, delibrium, and seizures. Their bodies reached temperatures higher than one hundred and five degrees and their organs started to fill agonizing. It was agonizing, Oh my God, this is horrible. Mariano and beg Ie held hands through it all. Beg Ae told Mariano that he couldn't take the pain in his chest, and he felt like he was being submerged underwater, each breath becoming more and more laborious. He told Mariano, they're murdering us in here, as his mouth and limbs twisted of their own accord in a spasmic way. Madama tried to comfort big Ae, telling him to stay strong. Big II's last memory of those excruciating moments were his brother's words, praying, my God, look after my heart, look after my soul, as in his brother being his like his heart and soul. I don't know if he was like about himself. Or his brother, but those were his what he remembers last hearing, Oh my god. Ometo finally arrived at the meeting spot where the drivers, who were also part of the smuggling operation were to pick up their set of migrants and take them to their separate destinations. He watched as the drivers opened the doors, but instead of the usual routine of shouting their respective codes and collecting their clients, he saw the drivers run back to their cars and speed away. Ometo was panicking, so he called Gistian, who told him to go look in the trailer. So he did with Gristian still on the line, and he told him there his body stacked up. Before ending the call, Guistian was now shaking himself, so he called Josese lieutenants, who told him to go pick Omeo up. Guistian arrived only minutes after, and he saw a teen girl sobbing near the truck, soaking with sweat, and a group of strangers trying to help her. These men were Roberto Quintero and his work crew, who Carmen mentioned at the top of the episode, who heard the screams while they were working and ran over to help. Once Ghistian saw that Ometo was not there, he fled the scene. Omedo had fled before Christian got there, and had also stopped replying to texts and calls from Christian. Luckily, Roberto and his crew saw Ometo and were able to describe him to law enforcement. They ran after him too, but he got away from them. Law enforcement and purchasponders arrived quickly within minutes. They they began to pull the migrants, arranging them signed by side on the dirt side of the road and pulling out survivors as they found them. The survivors totaled sixteen, and those who died total forty eight, including two migrants who had been found several hundred feet away from the semi truck. So the first first responders thought there might be others who kind of got further away from the truck, so they searched the sides of the road, and they found an unconscious man with the phone line next to him. At first they thought he was one of the victims, but this turned out to be a Metro Oh. They unlocked his phone and saw texts later determined to be from Christian asking where he was at, and he was quickly detained and put under a police supervision at the hospital where he was receiving treatment for amphetamine intoxication an dehydration. Oh okay, I was wondering why he was passed out. I see now. It didn't take police too long to find the others involved. Kuan was at the storage lot waiting to retrieve the semi truck when police arrested him and Kisian was arrested a couple of days later. Once he saw the news that Metal had been arrested, he knew he didn't have much time left, so he went back to his hometown, which is Palestine, Texas. Did you know there was a Palestine in Texas? I did. I didn't know that. And there's another one to tell us. Are you serious? Wow? But yeah, So he went back to his hometown, Palestine to visit his mom and sister and finish the rest of his cocaine, where he waited for the cops. Oh my god, priorities. Yeah, it took law enforcement a year to find an arrest. Felippe ba Jose evaded arrest. It's likely he fled to Mexico and he's still at least as of December twenty five. When I read the Texas Monthly article, he was still at large. Oh wow. Philippe's father in law was also found to be involved in the operation and was also arrested. In total, seven people were arrested. Okay, and I cried a lot during these notes. But there's a line from the article where Elliot Woods is writing about the Corner's office being overwhelmed with this disaster that was out of their scope, about when the authorities and first responders and whatnot were processing the scene, and he wrote, quote, once again, the migrants were loaded like cargo into the backs of large vehicles and hauled the way, this time to the morgue. Oh my god, head man the way. I cried, No, for sure, just reading that now, it's so impactful because they had been loaded up like this before. Yeah. And it took help from Dallas and Austin and five days for the Corner's office to complete the autopsies. The main cause of death was determined to be hyperthermia overheating, but the medical examiner determined that many of the migrants suffered from asphyxiation, from being smothered crushed by the weight of other bodies, or from being unable to survive on the oxygen depleted air. While the Corners Office determined hyperthermia to be the cause of death, they found homicide to be the manner of death to charge the seven. Yeah, and I mean this is what killed them. Yeah. While processing the scene gathering evidence, the authorities collected and took pictures of the diseased belongings. Most had nothing more than loose change in their pockets. Many traveled with fake Mexican documents. Others had prayer cards in their pockets. The pregnant hundred women had two pregnancy tests in her pocket when she died. Oh my god, they have There are smugglers codes, including one man who had the code zero five zero Placo, who was later determined to be Mariano. Meanwhile, Begaye was unconscious at the hospital. Begay survived. Yeah. Yeah. Begay's wife, Maddie and his brother saw another brother of theirs who was living in Aguadas. Both of them were granted special visas to visit Beggaye, and both took about a week to get to into the United States. Wow. I'm glad they were able to because had this been another administration st right now, I'm sure that this would have been denied. Yeah. They learned at the hospital that Begay's organs were shriveled like dried fruit, and I had suffered two strokes when he had arrived at the hospital. Oh my god. But eventually, after spending three days in a coma, he woke up. When he woke up, he had no memory of leaving Mexico. Wait, did I think his brother was still alive? Yeah, yeah, I'm telling you. I was crying. It's just heavy right now. His first words to his wife Maddie were forgive me. I didn't listen to you. And this was because when Begaye had left Mexico to come to United States, he only came to the US because Mariano had asked him to join him. Oh my god, because Mariano wanted to make more money because his wife, Luce Estrella was having like several medical issues and she needed to undergo a few diagnostic tests for a lot of the issues she was having and they didn't have the money for it, so he wanted to come to United States for that, and Begaye was actually doing okay and he didn't need to come. Yeah, just what help was brother? Yeah? Yeah? And Ma Diana had told him, well, I'm going either way, you if even if you don't come with me or without him. Yeah, And so Maddie had been telling don't go, don't go. We're doing well. Just you know, you're just stressing yourself out. You're just going to make things worse for everybody, not for you, but you know what I mean, like telling him you need to work fine, but Begay was like, I can't. I can't let him go to my brother alone. I have to. Yeah, I have to go with him. And Begae didn't remember that Mariano had gone into the trailer, and he would constantly ask if, oh my god, Mariana was okay, and if he had gone back to Mexico. It took her days to tell him the truth, because I mean, how do you tell someone that. No, of course, and when she finally told him, he cried quote with so much at that Maddie thought something within him was shadowing Oh my god. Yeah, it's terrible. Even when you know the part where I said they were holding hands, I was like, no, of course he was done. Eventually, Begai's condition improved and he was discharged on July twelveth. Upon his discharge, a days, Department of Homeland security agent had beg Ai sign a form saying he was arrested and placed in removal proceedings, but was reing released pending a hearing before an immigration judge in three months in Atlanta, where Baii had found work and was still planning to go. And Begai didn't really understand the paperwork he was signing. Although he had been discharged, he was still physically weak and cognitively impaired, and he needed constant care. And although he had been granted temporary work authorization, he wasn't really like good. I think you skipped over the part about his wife having breast cancer. Oh my god, No, you're right, okay, because I was talking about Lusisteria's medical issues and that that was the reason, because she was experiencing a lot of pain. That was the reason that Marianna wanted to come to the United States to make money to be able to pay for those things. Unfortunately, three months after Mariano's death, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. That's where all the pain was coming from. Yeah, and it had spread to her bones in her back, I think it said. And she died on July thirty first, twenty twenty three, and her and Mariano left behind two children. Oh yeah, I'm like, this family has been through enough man, and so yeah, begay was granted temporary work authorization, but he wasn't really able to work at this point, and attorney did help him apply for a U visa that's a specific kind of visa for victims of crimes. But this can take years to process. Right. Maddi was still in the United States through her own visa that she had been granted to visit Begai, and this visa was for thirty days, so she helped care for Bagae and then they went on to live with the relatives in Atlanta. After he was discharged, Madi requested an extension to visa, which was technically called humanitarian parole. Oh okay, and she wrote a letter explaining her situation, submitting it to the Atlanta Customs and Border Protection Office along with the letter of support from Begayi's doctor, basically saying he needs someone to care for him. Right, But her request was denied. Oh my fucking god. Yeah, I know, I was gonna cut you off, you know, when you were saying at least she was granted this blah blah blah, and I'm like, but hold on, yeah, And so after thirty days, she went back to Mexico. And as of the time that this article from The Texas Monthly was published in December twenty twenty five, Pegaye was still living in the US. He was working at a food truck long days, six days a week, sending money to support his family. He was still suffering from chronic pain and memory issues, and his immigration status is basically in limbo. He doesn't know where he stands, like with the U visa. He doesn't really know what's going on. And the journalist asked him like, oh, are you afraid of be deported? He's like not really, Honestly, it might be a blessing to go back to Mexico, but he wants to keep making money to support his family. And he also understands that to be deported doesn't mean simply to be sent back to Mexico, right, I means spending who knows how much amount of time at a detention center better known as a concentration camp. Right, and you know what the thing could send Someone else might be like, well, why not self deport He could still be stopped, like if he's going to fly to Mexico. He can still be stopped there at an airport and then take into a constitution cap and not allowed to leave and then spend months there, same as driving and leaving right and driving into Mexico. So how did how could he's trapped? He's trapped here, right? And he says, like the only positive is that he's able to make it of money out right now to support his family. But if it was like up to his own terms, he would simply walk across the bridge to go back to Mexico. What was about to cry again? Yeah, And that's that's what the thing we're saying right now is that he can't even do that though, Yeah, because he could be stopped on the way there. Yeah, Like people can't even leave on their own terms no matter what. Now right now the administration is saying now, yeah, and the most statistic thing is that they're encouraging people to self deport and then still detaining people, Yeah, because of these four profit concentration camps. And yeah, he wants nothing more than to be with his family and to hug Mariano's, Mardano's children, his nephew's brothers, his everyone arrested, which I had mentioned earlier. Were seven people in total were arrested, so everyone, including Omelo and Kisian pled guilty, except for Felippe or Luna Torre Suk You for Real and his father in law who was involved minimally but involved Armando Gonzales Garcia, who both went on to fight their charges in trial. However, in March twenty twenty five, a federal jury in Texas found them guilty. In September of that year, twenty twenty five, they were sentenced to eighty three years in prison, basically the rest of their lives, and they were also fined two hundred and fifty thousand each. Wow. Two survivors testified during the trial, including the teen girl whose screams alerted the workers. Her name is Sebastiana Morales. The siblings who were caring for her during the migration journey also survived. Their names are Glaci and Oswilo San Hai Bacajol Wow Joste. Luis Guzman was the other survivor who testified, and he was I think I mentioned the former Mexican soldier who was caring for the eighteen year old boy. Oh you, I think I forgot to write He yeah, he was a former Mexican soldier. Him and his cousin had basically taken over the care of the eighteen year old boy who his mom from Mexico City asked him to care for him. Yes, that was him, Okay. Unfortunately, the eighteen year old boy, Marco Antonio Velasco Velasco not survive and neither did Hote Luis's cousin, Javier Floras Lopez. And yeah, I mean during the trial they showed the pictures of all the victims, and when they showed when Jose Luis was testifying, they had a picture of his cousin Javier, and he broke down crying on the stand. Yeah. In twenty twenty four, a permanent memorial was constructed to honor the fifty three migrants who died on June twenty seventh, twenty twenty two. It consists of fifty three limestone block boulders, each boulder representing each one of the victims, and the boulders lead to a plaza with the sitting area and trees for shade. Each boulder ranges in size from thirteen to fifty five inches, corresponding with each of the victims' ages. Wow. So the youngest victim was thirteen year old Pascual Melvin Guaciac's feedback from Guatemala. And I think I had mentioned earlier that his cousin was the fourteen year old from Whatatemala who was to be ad but wanted to have money for his yeas or wanted to make money for them, yeah, to help raise them. Yeah, And the boulder in the middle of the plaza lists the names of all the victims and their countries of origin. Before the permanent memorial, community members had enacted and maintained a mix with memorial where they often left water bottles and gathered to like honor the lives that were lost. Oh my god. And yeah, that's the story of doing twenty twenty two. And if we just had open borders like this would have never happened, Okay, And that's kind of like what I wanted to talk about because and it's so it's like something we're always talking about, right, But over at Estadia Unknown our history of podcasts, we did that series on border patrol, right, and there was a point in time where deterrent policies were not used, right, And I mean, oh, are you gonna explain what the deterrent policy is kay, and deterrent policies are basically when border patrol started using the elements of the border lands basically to stop migrants from coming. And so yeah, this includes putting like fances everywhere, forcing migrants further and further into the deeper Yeah, that's a better word. Deeper and deeper into the desert. This is when migrants started dying in the in the deserts. They were pushed pushed more into dangerous areas of the Rio Grande River and so leading to more drown deaths. There's hundreds, hundreds and thousands of people that have lost their lives crossing into the United States because of these different policies, and every every year it seems to be getting worse. Right now, we talked about what is it called Operation Lone Star Lone Star in Texas, which was what a few years ago or was it longer ago? It started a few years ago, Yeah, a few years ago where Greg Abbad dot bitch. Yeah, basically he put so there's already deterrent policies forcing migrants into the elements, right, but he made those elements even worse by putting up essentially traps. Yeah, death traps, death traps for people, just horrible. And so, I mean, we talked about briefly about NAFTA. NAFTA is what does it stand for? National American Fair Trade Agreement Agreement. Yeah, North American, No North American, North American Fair Trade Agreement, right, And this was basically to increase free trade among the North Americas, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. But this in the process fucking Mexico right, right, So it it enabled the movement of product, but not people, right, like fuck those people that make those products, the people that make this capital. Right, And yeah, it made things worse for Mexico and the border lands. It led to Machila Loras factories I guess, yeah, where women were exploited, which we have talked about because if there's new listeners on this episode, first, what an episode to join us on. But oh my god, it's a worse Sorry if this is your But every March we cover like femicide stories of femicides from different places in Latin America, and one of the ones we've done was in Sua. Actually I think a couple from sud Asquadas, but a lot of the femicides in Suda aquadas are tied to the machiladas, where again women are exploited, abused, Yeah, killed. And even the use of this kind of smuggling operations didn't become big till after NAFTA either, Right, and there are was a time where people could just come and go in the border a lot easier. And like here we have an example, right there was that Mexican man, the eldest man who died in this tragedy. He had been living in the United States for twenty years and if he had simply been able to come and go, he would not have lost his life that day. Yeah, and people have been moving freely in the America because no, of course, the dawn of the America's migration is a natural human As my seven year old would say, people can move like the butterflies exactly. I'm gonna cry again, but like, I don't know, I don't remember what episode we first did, like Haunted Stories from the Border. Yeah, and in that episode, I was like, yeah, open borders, bitch, I don't care. And someone was like, you sound like someone's the comment on spot Spotify like pretty much guess what nation? Also nation nations. When nations were created, they genocided the indigenous people, So I mean, yeah, you know, And I'm like, I don't care, Like I leave your angry comment calling me stupid, I don't care like open borders all day. Yeah, they're like, what do you think that you actually everyone? Yeah I do. I'm sorry to say, oh, sorry, like I do. But that's what I'm saying. Okay, Like if there was a humane immigration policy which consisted of open which was let everybody in, people wouldn't stay. Some people, yes, would say here, make their lives here, but people just like they have always done so, they would come and go. Okay, And the United States has basically estorted Latin America for profit and that pushes people to come here. Everyone should read The Harvest of Latin America. Yeah, there's a quote in there, and I wish that this would have gotten more like views than it did in both TAC Instagram. Not because I want people to find me, no, because the quote was so impactful, but basically in Encuarto intimation, the quote was basically like, if it wasn't for the resources and like the work of the people of Latin America, the US wouldn't be what it was exactly. Yeah, the United States hadn't pillaged Latin America and the world, they wouldn't be where they're at. And so the only reason I'm pretty sure the word pillage is in the quote it is. Yeah, it is and yeah, And that's why I said in the at the top of the episode, like to me, it felt important, like, yes, this is hard to talk about, but I feel the need. I feel the need to talk about this because we were born by happen stance on this side of a made up border and because of no control of my own. You know, I am privileged, right, but had I been on the other side, outside of the empire, that could have been me on that trailer. And I'm not saying I care because it could have been me. I'm saying we should all care because the United States forces these conditions and causes these deaths, and so we all have blood on our hands. I'm sorry to say. Yeah. And because we all have that, it is I think a requirement that we learn these people's names. We have a responsibility, yeah, to bear witness, to share their stories, to take accountability, because the reason we have cheap products, cheap services is because of the pillaging, right, because of capitalism. And capitalism drives immigration. Capitalism needs immigration. Yeah, and no matter the amount of deterrence that are put in place, no matter the amount of like punishment that's put in place, people will come here and they will continue to die because of the United States immigration policies. Yeah. Yeah, and I think on that very depressing note, if we will end the episode. Yeah, but yeah, I don't know, look up a local or doing something to help migrants, Like, there's so many girl fundmes for people that have been detained and are now out of these detention centers. And if you don't have it, get some empathy, okay, because you're not better. No, you're not better than the migrant who came here in a truck, you know what I mean, You're not better than them. No, no, but I'm I implore someone or you listening right now to go find one of those go fund means. There's so many. I really don't feel like I need to link like the hundreds that I have found. Yeah, do five dollars at a time. But yeah, there's so many pages sharing them, we repost them all the time, and so many local organizations, local groups that are finding the good fight. And I'm sure there's one year you there's no doubt. There's no doubt there is so yeah. Other than that, don't despair. Okay, nice, yes, and stay Spookie. We'll catch everyone next time. Bye bye. As Booktels is hosted by Christina and Carmen, produced and edited by Christina, researched by Christina Carmen and with the help of Don Shout Out Don. If you aren't joying the podcast considerably, going to say five star review, we would really appreciate it. If you don't want to the five star review, just don't leave a review. But don't eve anything lower than that, please, I'm just kidding. You can reach out to the podcast at at spoakatos at gmail dot com. You can go to our website at bookitos dot com and fill out the contact form. If you want to support the podcast, you can join our Patreon where we send exclusive stickers, have bonus episodes. Eight dollar members get an exclusive keychain. It's super cool. I got new ones and these ones are huge. And if you want to support but you can or don't want to join the Patreon, that's fine too. You can also get some merch you can find sure Sessay, Spooky and old English letters. There's a beanie. I love the beanie. There's also a hat. There's a no Mamus shirt, which is a fan favorite. There's a lot of options, crap tops, sweaters, it's almost sweatter weather. We're nearing a Spookie season, so yeah, get your hoodies. You're gonna need them. If you don't want to do all that, that's fine too. You can just listen like you're listening now, and that's the best support that you can give us. Like I always say in our ad break and yeah, I feel like history. You can follow Estodia's Unknown Mining, Carment's other podcasts, and you can find a Spooky Tells on all of our socials at a Spooky Tells All this is in the show notes and we appreciate every single listen. Thank you so much. Stay as Spooky