과테말라인, 멕시코 충돌 사건으로 50명 이상 사망 - 연방법원에서 유죄 인정
Guatemalan man pleads guilty in federal court in crash that killed over 50 in Mexico
NPR
The Associated Press
EN
2026-04-09 05:04
Translated
한 남성이 수요일 연방법원에서 유죄를 인정했으며, 2021년 멕시코에서 트럭이 충돌해 50명 이상이 사망한 사건과 관련해 불법 이민자 밀수 시도에 연루된 사실을 인정했다.
The Associated Press
Bodies in bags sit on the side of the road after a deadly semi-trailer truck crash in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas state, Mexico, Dec. 9, 2021.
AP
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LAREDO, Texas — A Guatemalan man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to a felony offense and acknowledged his involvement in an attempt to illegally smuggle migrants to the U.S. when a jampacked tractor-tailer truck crashed in Mexico in 2021, killing more than 50 migrants.
Daniel Zavala Ramos, 42, faces a possible sentence of life in prison following his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Laredo, Texas, to a single charge of conspiring to bring migrants without documents from Guatemala through Mexico to the U.S. and placing lives in jeopardy and causing serious injury and deaths, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Sentencing is set for July 7.
Ramos was among six Guatemalans charged over the crash of the semitrailer truck and the first to be convicted. The other five have a final pretrial conference on June 3, according to court records. Ramos' attorney did not immediately return an email Wednesday evening seeking comment.
At least 160 migrants, many from Guatemala, were packed into the truck that hit the support base for a pedestrian bridge on Dec. 9, 2021, and overturned, authorities said. At least 53 people were killed and more than 100 were injured, officials said, and video footage at the time of the crash showed dead and injured migrants in a jumbled pile inside the truck's collapsed freight container.
The Justice Department statement said the dead included unaccompanied children.
The crash occurred on a highway leading toward the Chiapas state capital, some 160 miles (260 kilometers) from Mexico's border with Guatemala and about 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) south of the Mexican border with Texas.
Authorities announced the arrests of Ramos and the five other defendants in Guatemala and Texas in 2024, on the third anniversary of the accident. Ramos was extradited in 2025 from Guatemala to face charges, the DOJ statement said.
Prosecutors said the Guatemalans conspired to smuggle migrants from Guatemala through Mexico to the U.S. for payment. In cases of unaccompanied children being smuggled, the defendants would provide scripts of what to say if they were apprehended, authorities said.
The smugglers would move migrants on foot, inside microbuses, cattle trucks and tractor trailers and use Facebook Messenger to request and deliver identification documents to the migrants to get them into the U.S., according to authorities.
Bodies in bags sit on the side of the road after a deadly semi-trailer truck crash in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas state, Mexico, Dec. 9, 2021.
AP
hide caption
LAREDO, Texas — A Guatemalan man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to a felony offense and acknowledged his involvement in an attempt to illegally smuggle migrants to the U.S. when a jampacked tractor-tailer truck crashed in Mexico in 2021, killing more than 50 migrants.
Daniel Zavala Ramos, 42, faces a possible sentence of life in prison following his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Laredo, Texas, to a single charge of conspiring to bring migrants without documents from Guatemala through Mexico to the U.S. and placing lives in jeopardy and causing serious injury and deaths, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Sentencing is set for July 7.
Ramos was among six Guatemalans charged over the crash of the semitrailer truck and the first to be convicted. The other five have a final pretrial conference on June 3, according to court records. Ramos' attorney did not immediately return an email Wednesday evening seeking comment.
At least 160 migrants, many from Guatemala, were packed into the truck that hit the support base for a pedestrian bridge on Dec. 9, 2021, and overturned, authorities said. At least 53 people were killed and more than 100 were injured, officials said, and video footage at the time of the crash showed dead and injured migrants in a jumbled pile inside the truck's collapsed freight container.
The Justice Department statement said the dead included unaccompanied children.
The crash occurred on a highway leading toward the Chiapas state capital, some 160 miles (260 kilometers) from Mexico's border with Guatemala and about 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) south of the Mexican border with Texas.
Authorities announced the arrests of Ramos and the five other defendants in Guatemala and Texas in 2024, on the third anniversary of the accident. Ramos was extradited in 2025 from Guatemala to face charges, the DOJ statement said.
Prosecutors said the Guatemalans conspired to smuggle migrants from Guatemala through Mexico to the U.S. for payment. In cases of unaccompanied children being smuggled, the defendants would provide scripts of what to say if they were apprehended, authorities said.
The smugglers would move migrants on foot, inside microbuses, cattle trucks and tractor trailers and use Facebook Messenger to request and deliver identification documents to the migrants to get them into the U.S., according to authorities.