BALTIMORE (AP) — A wooden cross is laden with Miguel Luna’s personal belongings — his construction uniform and work boots, a family photo, the flag of his native El Salvador — but his body remains missing after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
More than a month has passed since six members of a roadwork crew plunged to their deaths when a container ship lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns. Four bodies have been recovered, but Luna and another worker, Jose Mynor Lopez, have not been found.
They were all Latino immigrants who came to the United States from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. They were fathers and husbands, brothers and grandfathers. They shared a common dream and a determination to achieve it.
In an effort to honor their lives and their work, Baltimore County’s close-knit Latino community has constructed an elaborate memorial near the south end of the bridge. It includes decorated wooden crosses, a painted canvas backdrop, bunches of flowers, candles and a giant modified American flag with six stars — one for each of the men.
A group of mourners gathered at the memorial Friday evening to offer support for the victims’ loved ones and remind the public that even as cleanup efforts proceed on schedule and maritime traffic resumes through the Port of Baltimore, two families have yet to be made whole.
“It is one month, and there’s still two bodies under the water,” said Fernando Sajche, who knew Luna and helped construct the memorial. “We really need some answers.”
Sajche, who immigrated from Guatemala 16 years ago and works in construction himself, said it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that the victims died on the job.
“They’re the people who do the hard work in this country,” Sajche said.
The men were filling potholes on the bridge in the early hours of March 26 when the ship veered off course. A last-minute mayday call from the ship’s pilot allowed police officers to stop traffic to the bridge moments before the collapse, but they didn’t have enough time to alert the workers.
One of the officers who helped block traffic stopped by the vigil Friday and visited briefly with some of Luna’s relatives. He admired the memorial and praised the community’s warm response to an unthinkable tragedy.
Organizers used two cranes to hoist Salvadoran and Guatemalan flags high into the air in honor of Luna and Mynor Lopez.
Marcoin Mendoza, who worked with Luna several years ago as a welder, said Luna came to the U.S. to build a better life for himself and his family, like so many other immigrants.
“Same dream as everybody else,” Mendoza said. “To work hard.”
Luna was especially well-known in his community because his wife has a local food truck specializing in pupusas and other Salvadoran staples. He would often spend his days helping at the food truck and his nights working construction.
As the sun set Friday evening, mourners listened to mariachi music and passed out bowls of soup and beans. They lit candles and prayed together.
Bernardo Vargas, who helped construct the memorial, said he appreciates being able to do something for the victims’ families.
“I’ll be here every day until they find those two people,” he said.
Standing in front of the memorial’s elaborate painted backdrop, he pointed to a cluster of red handprints made by Luna’s relatives. They stood out among abstract depictions of the bridge collapse and salvage efforts as well as a violent scene from the U.S. southern border that showed a row of armored officers fighting back desperate migrants.
Loved ones left messages in English and Spanish.
“Here is where everything ends, all your aspirations and all your work. Now rest until the day when the trumpets sound,” someone had written in Spanish. “You will live on in the hearts of your loving family.”
A vessel, center right, moves past the stranded container ship Dali, through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Workers remove wreckage of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A vessel, center right, moves past the stranded container ship Dali, through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Roberto Marquez, an artist from Dallas, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at a memorial site to honor the construction workers who lost their lives in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
MOSCOW (AP) — Armenia's prime minister visited Moscow on Thursday and held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid spiraling tensions between the estranged allies.
Putin hosted Nikol Pashinyan for talks following a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Moscow-dominated economic alliance. that they both attended earlier in the day. The negotiations came a day after Putin began his fifth term at a glittering Kremlin inauguration.
In brief remarks at the start of the talks, Putin said that bilateral trade was growing, but acknowledged “some issues concerning security in the region.”
Pashinyan, who last visited Moscow in December, said that “certain issues have piled up since then.”
Armenia's ties with its longtime sponsor and ally Russia have grown increasingly strained after Azerbaijan waged a lightning military campaign in September to reclaim the Karabakh region, ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatists’ rule there.
Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh after the previous round of hostilities in 2020 of failing to stop Azerbaijan's onslaught. Moscow, which has a military base in Armenia, has rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.
The Kremlin, in turn, has been angered by Pashinyan’s efforts to deepen ties with the West and distance his country from Moscow-dominated security and economic alliances.
Just as Pashinyan was visiting Moscow on Wednesday, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry announced that the country will stop paying fees to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-dominated security pact. Armenia has previously suspended its participation in the grouping as Pashinyan has sought to bolster ties with the European Union and NATO.
Russia was also vexed by Armenia’s decision to join the International Criminal Court, which last year indicted Putin for alleged war crimes connected to the Russian action in Ukraine.
Moscow, busy with the Ukrainian conflict that has dragged into a third year, has publicly voiced concern about Yerevan's westward shift but sought to downplay the differences.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov conceded Tuesday that “there are certain problems in our bilateral relations,” but added that “there is a political will to continue the dialogue."
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and other officials attend a working dinner following a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the economic alliance's performance, saying that it helped boost the members' economic potential. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
From left: Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev pose for a photo during a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the economic alliance's performance, saying that it helped boost the members' economic potential. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council of the Eurasian Economic Union at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the economic alliance's performance, saying that it helped boost the members' economic potential. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool Photo via AP)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, left, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, second left, Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, second right, and Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov pose for a photo during a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the economic alliance's performance, saying that it helped boost the members' economic potential. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool Photo via AP)
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, left, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, second left, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, second right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo during a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the economic alliance's performance, saying that it helped boost the members' economic potential. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool Photo via AP)
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and other officials attend a working dinner following a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the economic alliance's performance, saying that it helped boost the members' economic potential. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a working dinner following a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the economic alliance's performance, saying that it helped boost the members' economic potential. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council of the Eurasian Economic Union at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the economic alliance's performance, saying that it helped boost the members' economic potential. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool Photo via AP)
