A woman who was in the semi-trailer that 53 migrants were killed last month at the U.S. border with Mexico says her friend saved her life. CBS News reported.
Guatemalan national Yenifer Yulisa Cardona Tomás, 20, spoke to the Associated PressMonday, she woke up in hospital to tell her colleagues that it was already hot the day she and other people loaded into the semi.
She said that the smugglers confiscated everyone’s cellphones before cramming people into the semi from a warehouse. The Associated Press reported that she believes crushed chicken bouillon was spread on the truck’s flooring to eliminate any scents from dogs who come across it.
Cardona Tomás said that she was cautioned to stay near the door where it would be cooler, advice she then relayed to another friend who also survived the horrific corrections.
“I told a friend that we shouldn’t go to the back and should stay near (the entrance), in the same place without moving,”She spoke to the Associated Press.
Cardona Tomás is being treated at Methodist Hospital Metropolitan in San Antonio near where the semi was discovered. The truck was headed to Houston and Cardona Tomás was going to make her way to North Carolina, CBS News reported.
She stated that the truck made additional stops to collect more migrants, and that more people wanted to be closer to the door to get the same reason.
“The people were yelling, some cried. Mostly women were calling for it to stop and to open the doors because it was hot, that they couldn’t breathe,”She spoke to the Associated Press.
According to the Associated Press, people were calling for water. She lost consciousness, and she eventually woken up in a hospital.
Federal officials say the semi carrying Cardona Tomás is believed to be the deadliest human smuggling case in modern U.S. history.
This horrifying discovery was made in San Antonio by a worker who heard the pleas for help, and saw. “stacks of bodies”Officials said that they were in the trailer.
The victims were from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.
“This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,”Ron Nirenberg, San Antonio Mayor, spoke at a news conference close to the grisly scene.
The Department of Homeland Security released a statement stating that it was “horrified at this tragic loss of life near San Antonio. This speaks to the desperation of migrants who would put their lives in the hands of callous human smugglers who show no regard for human life.”
The fire chief of the city said that first responders were being briefed to help them heal from what happened.
“We’re not supposed to open up a truck and see stacks of bodies in there,”Hood stated. “None of us come to work imagining that.”
The driver was arrested along with three other people and they were charged by U.S. Prosecutors.