The governments of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras confirmed that their citizens were among the 6 still missing after cargo ship crashed into Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday.
The construction workers who went missing in the Baltimore bridge collapse all hailed from Mexico or Central America before they settled in the Maryland area.
Police managed to close bridge traffic seconds before a cargo ship slammed into one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s supports early on Tuesday, causing the span to fall into the frigid Patapsco River. There was no time for a maintenance crew filling potholes on the span to get to safety.
At least eight people fell into the water and two were rescued. The other six are missing and presumed dead, but the search continued on Wednesday.
The governments of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras confirmed that their citizens were among the missing.
Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, 39, was the youngest of eight siblings from Azacualpa, a rural mountainous area in northwestern Honduras along the border with Guatemala.
Eighteen years ago, he set out on his own for the US looking for opportunities. He entered illegally and settled in Maryland, where he eventually started a business, one of his brothers, Martin Suazo Sandoval, said on Wednesday. He said his brother was entrepreneurial and hard-working.
Other siblings and relatives followed him north.
“He was the fundamental pillar, the bastion so that other members of the family could also travel there and later get visas and everything,” Martin Suazo Sandoval said. “He was really the driving force so that most of the family could travel.”
The Covid-19 pandemic forced Maynor to find other work, and he joined Brawner Builders, the company that was performing maintenance on the bridge when it collapsed.
Things had been going well for him until the collapse. He was moving through the steps to get legal residency and planned to return to Honduras this year to complete the process, his brother said.
In Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said three Mexicans were on the bridge when it fell, including one who was injured but rescued and two who were still missing.
