Venezuelans Angie Madelaine Gutiérrez Aguilar and José Gregorio Flórez Salcedo died while trying to cross the Rio Grande, located on the border between Mexico and the United States. The couple undertook the trip from Cartagena, Colombia, city to which they had migrated since 2018. According to El Tiempo de Colombia, both were dragged by the force of the current.
The relatives lost contact with them at the end of June and it was on July 16 when they learned regarding the death of the couple. The Venezuelans were from Maracaibo, Zulia state.
The Colombian newspaper El Universal detailed that Gutiérrez and Flórez traveled to Bogotá to begin the route to Panama. Then they arrived in Honduras and from there they left for Mexico. They were part of a group of migrants that became separated at the Mexican border. In total, they traveled almost 37 days to reach the United States.
Venezuelan couple drowned
The victim’s younger brother, Víctor, said that the Venezuelans decided to migrate to the United States because Flórez had an aunt who might receive them in that country. Upon reaching the Rio Grande area, the couple hired a coyote to be able to cross into US territory. “This person was the one who informed us that when they were very close to passing by, her girlfriend slipped, and seeing that she was drowning, he jumped to save her and they began to fight with the water, but they might not. The river took them away,” he recounted.
So far, only the body of José Gregorio has been found, while that of Angie has not been located by the authorities.
“We thought they were detained in the US.”
Family members indicated that they thought the couple had been detained by US immigration authorities, so they did not have access to cell phones.
The repatriation is worth 2 thousand dollars
After hearing the news, the family contacted the authorities to locate the morgue to which the body of the young Venezuelan was transferred.
The newspaper El Universal reported that Flórez’s body remains in that center because the repatriation costs more than 2 thousand dollars. Another version, reported by La Libertad, details that the Mexican authorities proceeded to bury the body in a common grave due to difficulties in communication with the family.
“A prosecutor in Mexico was the one who located my brother’s body in a morgue in Piedras Negras in Mexico, and what happened is that following regarding five days there were no complaints, because we did not know what had happened, so they buried him in a pantheon, ”said the younger brother, according to that version.
They had collected enough to start the journey
The Colombian media highlighted that José Gregorio, 30 years old, was a musician and a timbal lover. When he migrated to Colombia, he worked in exchange houses, then he was a security guard. He also got a job as a bricklayer and was a motorcycle taxi driver. In this way, the Venezuelan managed to collect enough money to buy an apartment in the Los Campanos sector, in Cartagena.
The two Venezuelan migrants wanted to come to the United States in search of new opportunities. They decided to go first to get to know the route and throughout the journey both brothers were in constant communication. Víctor related that the idea was that following Angie and José Gregorio arrived, he was going to travel the same route.
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