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 is 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 reported, with video footage showing deceased and injured migrants inside the truck’s collapsed freight container.
The Justice Department statement confirmed that some of the victims included unaccompanied children.
The crash occurred on a highway leading toward the Chiapas state capital, located about 160 miles (260 kilometers) from Mexico’s border with Guatemala and approximately 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) south of the Mexican border with Texas.
Authorities revealed that Ramos and the five other defendants were arrested in Guatemala and Texas in 2024, marking the third anniversary of the tragedy. Ramos was extradited in 2025 to face charges, the DOJ statement elaborated.
Prosecutors indicated the Guatemalans conspired to smuggle migrants through Mexico to the U.S. for compensation, providing scripts for unaccompanied minors on what to say if apprehended. The smugglers used various methods including moving migrants on foot, inside microbuses, cattle trucks, and tractor trailers, employing Facebook Messenger to communicate and arrange for identification documents for the migrants attempting to enter the U.S.
