With the dream of helping his family financially, a 32-year-old Colombian jumped into the Rio Grande, which divides the border between Mexico and the United States, to try to reach the North American country, but his attempt ended in tragedy.
Barranquilla native Abel Eduardo Consuegra Santiago began a journey to set foot on American soil; On June 21 he traveled by plane from Bogotá to Cancún, Mexico; On June 23 he arrived in Monterrey, then on the 30th by land he arrived in Coahuila, and the end of this entire odyssey would be July 1, the day he would cross the Rio Grande to reach the United States.
At 3 in the afternoon he left with a group of people to try to cross the river and reach El Paso, Texas, but as the day passed his relatives heard nothing more about him and began to get distressed, so they published through on social networks contact numbers for people who had any information.
Estefany, his romantic partner for more than seven years and mother of his little boy, said that Abel Consuegra decided to make this dangerous journey due to lack of work: “He decided to leave because of the lack of employment, because of the danger he was experiencing, because of so many things, it was a difficult decision that he made, I supported him, although I always suggested that he choose another destination,” the woman expressed in Impacto News.
The man who lived in Soledad, Atlántico, sought to give a better future to his family and fulfill the ‘American dream’: “His dream was always to be in the United States, he wanted to work there and give us the best. They say it’s a dream to be there, but now they tell me that’s not the case, especially with what I’m experiencing with Abel. His son asks about him every day,” Estefany revealed.
After having no information about the man’s whereabouts, Abel Consuegra’s romantic partner received a phone call from a fellow traveler and told him that he had died after being dragged into the river along with four people, including a woman and her daughter. .
“We found out on July 25, from those who were in the group, that the crossing had gone badly because several people had been carried away by the current, among them was my partner, there is news confirming that there are several people drowned to date, we began to communicate with the consulates and the morgue to be able to locate him, but we have not been right,” Estefany told the aforementioned media.
Their relatives called consulates, media outlets and morgues in Mexico and the United States. “He there, as if he didn’t count, because he entered as an immigrant, we reported him in the National Missing Persons System of the United States and we also reported him in Mexico. He does not appear in any way, neither sick, nor imprisoned, neither alive nor dead. In the United States, a boy from the Colombian consulate in Houston is helping me, but communication with Mexico has been very difficult.”
Until his body was found in Houston, Texas: “They had him in a morgue and we identified him from some photos they sent us of his tattoos,” said the widow. Those close to the 32-year-old man are trying to raise resources to cremate the body in Houston and bring it to Colombia. With Infobae