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Drowned father and daughter mourned at El Salvador cemetery

Jul 1, 2019 | 10:27 AM

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The bodies of a man and his young daughter who drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande into Texas are being laid to rest in their native El Salvador.

About 50 people are carrying flowers and following a hearse toward the burial site at La Bermeja cemetery in southern San Salvador, the capital. Journalists are not allowed access to the private ceremony.

Relatives and friends, many clad in black, arrived by bus Monday from their hometown of Altavista.

Among them was Berta Padilla, who said she knew the victims.

In her words: “They are good people, and I can’t believe they died this way.”

A heartbreaking photograph of the father and daughter that circled the globe underscored the perils faced by migrants and asylum-seekers trying to reach the U.S.

The Associated Press