Guatemalan man pleads guilty in federal court after truck crash in Mexico killed over 50 migrants

LAREDO, Texas (AP) — 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.

FILE - 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 Photo, File)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Wednesday asked public and private sector workers, whose wages have long not allowed them to afford basic necessities, for patience as her government works to improve the country’s economy.

Rodríguez, in a nationally televised address to the nation, promised workers a wage increase on May 1. She did not disclose the amount but explained it would be done in a way meant to avoid the inflationary spike that followed the last minimum wage increase.

“This increase, as we have indicated, will be a responsible increase,” Rodríguez said. “Likewise in the near future, as Venezuela enjoys more resources that allow for the sustainability of salary improvements and workers’ income, we will continue moving forward on this path.”

Many public sector workers survive on roughly $160 per month, while the average private sector employee earned about $237 last year. Venezuela’s monthly minimum wage of 130 bolivars, or $0.27, has not increased since 2022, putting it well below the United Nations’ measure of extreme poverty of $3 a day.

The International Monetary Fund estimates Venezuela’s inflation rate is a staggering 682%, the highest of any country for which it has data. The country’s central bank last month released inflation figures for the first time since November 2024, showing the annual rate in 2025 soared to 475% from 48% the year before.

That has sent the cost of food beyond what many can afford.

Rodríguez's address to the nation came a day before workers are expected to demonstrate in Venezuela's capital, Caracas, to demand a wage increase. She told viewers that change will not happen overnight and asked them as well as employers across industries to work together and with her government “to begin a sustained recovery and maintain this path of growth.”

“It must be done with prudence, with awareness, with patience, but with a profound spirit of optimism about what the future holds for Venezuela,” Rodríguez said.

FILE - Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez smiles during a meeting with a delegation led by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)