9 Year Old Honduran Boy Drowns Attempting to Cross Rio Grande River with Parents
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2021
A nine year old Honduran boy drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande River with his parents and another sibling in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, opposite of Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday, February 18, 2021.
A family of four from Honduras attempted to cross the Rio Grande River with the mother holding hands with the nine year old son while the father held on to a younger daughter.
The strong current in the Rio Grande dislodged the mother’s grip on her nine year old son who submerged under water and drifted away from the mother in the river. The father immediately placed the younger daughter on the banks of the Rio Grande on the Mexico side and swam to attempt to rescue the young boy, but by the time the father reached his son the young boy had already drowned.
The father stated that he and his wife together with their two children had traveled from Honduras for four months to get to the U.S.-Mexico border to seek the “American Dream” of living and working in the United States. The father added that the family had ridden the Mexican railroad from southern Mexico to Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico.
Despite the freezing temperatures on the Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras border area due to the winter storm of February 2021, the family of four waded into the frigid Rio Grande waters to attempt to cross into the United States.
Both Mexican and United States authorities are warning undocumented immigrants not to attempt to cross the Rio Grande because the currents are treacherous and dangerous as well as the water being extremely cold due to the winter storm, causing them to endanger their lives by drowning or from hypothermia.
