Photo of drowned migrant father and son causes public outrage

The photo of a migrant father and son drowning while crossing a river from Mexico to the US has sparked outrage. Photo: AFP

AFP news agency reported on June 26 that according to a report from a Mexican court, Oscar Martinez Ramirez, 25 years old, a citizen of El Salvador, his 21-year-old wife and daughter decided to risk crossing the river to go from Mexico to the United States on the afternoon of June 23.

Ramirez carried his daughter on his back, tucked into his T-shirt to protect her while trying to cross the river. But the two were swept away by the fierce waves, drowning right before the mother’s eyes. The bodies of the father and daughter were found on June 24 in Matamoros, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

A series of haunting photos showing a young father and his baby lying face down in the water has stirred anger in El Salvador and Mexico, where the government has faced fierce criticism over its treatment of migrants.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist who took office in December pledging to protect migrants’ rights, has also come under fire after AFP journalists published images of heavily armed National Guard troops forcibly detaining two women and a girl in the Rio Grande last week. On June 25, the Mexican leader insisted that the 15,000 troops his government had deployed to the US border were not ordered to stop migrants from crossing, and vowed to investigate the controversial arrest.

Lopez Obrador is also facing pressure from US President Donald Trump over border migration, and his government is trying to show results, avoiding the punitive tariffs the US leader threatened to impose on Mexican goods last month.

On June 7, the two countries reached an agreement under which Mexico agreed to reinforce its southern border by sending 6,000 more National Guard troops. Washington has given Mexico 45 days to act.