Two Guatemalan men pleaded guilty in federal court in Texas on Wednesday to human smuggling charges connected to a December 2021 tractor-trailer crash in southern Mexico that resulted in the deaths of 55 migrants.
The defendants, identified as Jorge Agapito Ventura, 34, and Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino, 26, admitted they conspired to smuggle adults and unaccompanied children from Guatemala through Mexico into the United States. Ventura was arrested in Texas in December 2024. Zavala Quino was among five co-defendants extradited to the United States the following year to face charges in the case.
Under federal law, each man faces a maximum possible punishment of life in prison. A Justice Department statement said sentencing for both defendants is set for October 6.
The guilty pleas pertain to a smuggling operation in which an estimated 166 migrants were forced into a single tractor-trailer rig. The vehicle overturned and collided with a bridge abutment near the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez in Chiapas, Mexico, on December 9, 2021. Fifty-five migrants died in the collision, including a 16-year-old girl, and dozens more were reported injured.
Survivors described being packed so tightly into the trailer compartment that most could only stand. Video footage of the crash aftermath showed bodies scattered at the scene. Federal authorities characterized the incident as one of the deadliest human smuggling tragedies in recent memory.
Mexican officials reported that nearly all of the victims were Guatemalan. Chiapas authorities additionally indicated that among the injured were three people from the Dominican Republic, a Honduran, a Mexican and an Ecuadorian.
Prosecutions in this case have proceeded over multiple months and involved several extradited suspects. Three of four other Guatemalan nationals who were extradited to the United States have entered guilty pleas on similar charges - one pleaded guilty in April, and two others did so last month. Criminal charges against a sixth defendant in the case remain pending.
"These defendants worked together to exploit vulnerable people by breaking the immigration laws of this country, with deadly consequences that followed," said Assistant U.S. Attorney General A. Tysen Duva in a Justice Department statement.
The recent guilty pleas mark further legal developments in a case that has spanned international law enforcement cooperation, extradition and federal prosecution in the United States. With sentencing scheduled for October, the pending proceedings for remaining defendants will determine the full legal resolution of the matter.
Reporting note: The information in this article follows charges filed in federal court and statements released by the U.S. Justice Department and local Mexican authorities as described above.