The Nicaraguan boy abandoned at the US border by 'coyotes' is reunited with his mother in Texas: "I wanted to be with her"

Happy ending for Wilto Eniel Gutiérrez, the 10-year-old migrant boy from Nicaragua whose story shocked the world after he was abandoned almost two months ago at the US-Mexico border by 'coyotes' who had kidnapped him.

His story did not remain anonymous like many others, thanks to the fact that a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent, who ran into the child on April 1, recorded a video at the time Wilto He asks for help: “They left me thrown away,” the youngest said between sobs.

This Friday, she exchanged tears for a huge smile after finally being able to reunite with her mother, Meylin Obregón, in San Benito (Texas) with whom she will live from now on at La Posada Providencia, a shelter for immigrants and asylum seekers. located in this municipality of the USA.

Until now, the boy was in the Casa Padre (Texas) center for unaccompanied minors, separated from his mother, who lived in La Posada Providencia, 20 kilometers away, and who could only visit him on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as she herself explained. to Telemundo: “I felt happy when I was with him, but at the same time sad because I didn't bring him with me”. For this reason, Meylin Obregón assured that “today is a very special day in which I feel very happy and content because I no longer returned alone, but I did it with my child who was finally given to me.”

Wilto changed the apocalyptic landscape of the La Grulla desert (Texas) where he was found disoriented by the border agent for a bucolic place surrounded by greenery, where he was able to hug his mother: “I feel happy because I am now together with my mother”. Asked by the Telemundo journalist how was the meeting with his mother when he saw her for the first time outside the shelter, the boy revealed that he told her that “he loved her very much, because I haven't seen her for a long time and I wanted to be with her.”.

The first images of the reunion show the boy dragging a blue toy tractor with a rope that his mother gave him as soon as they hugged:. “I had it saved for him,” Meylin stressed emotionally, who confessed that the first thing she did when she saw him when she left the hostel was to hug him and tell him that “I loved him very much and that we were going to be together.. I don't want us to be apart anymore”.

From now on, mother and son will temporarily live in one of the houses at La Posada Providencia, where emergency shelter is provided and the immediate needs of migrants are attended to while they consider their next resettlement step in the US.. Thus, Meylin's objective is to travel to Miami, where his brother, Misael Obregón, is waiting for him, who after learning about the family reunion stressed that he was “super excited”.

“My heart is going to be happy because it is the best news I could have had in my life”. After thanking his sister and nephew for their international support, Obregón regretted that there had been “mean and malicious people who were praying for my sister to return to Nicaragua with the child.”.

The father relinquishes custody

Precisely, the reunion between Meylin and Wilto was complicated after his ex-partner and father of the child, Lázaro Gutiérrez, who lives in Muelle de los Bueyes, in central Nicaragua, requested custody, despite the fact that initially, he had given consent for the mother to immigrate to the US with the minor.

This paralyzed the entire process, since as long as there was no custody agreement between the parents, it would be the US authorities who, through a trial, would determine who was granted custody of the child..

However, on May 15, Gutiérrez reported that he would no longer fight for custody, so the Government of Nicaragua withdrew the repatriation request, which has allowed the child to live with his mother, waiting for the both can travel to Miami to start a new life.

The 30-year-old woman and her 10-year-old son left for the US on February 7 “motivated by relationship problems at home,” according to what the Vice President of Nicaragua herself, Rosario Murillo, revealed at the time.. For his part, the minor's uncle, Misael Obregón, the mother's brother, explained that his relatives had been rejected at the US border and deported to Mexico, where, according to his version, they were kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers who They requested $10,000 to release them..

After sending $5,000 through a money transfer company, they only released the child, while the mother remained in the hands of the kidnappers until she was released on April 14 and was able to reach the US, where she requested asylum with the hope to see your son. According to the Vice President of Nicaragua, both left the country through blind spots and two of Meylin's brothers who reside in the US financed the trip so that a “coyote” would introduce them illegally into that country..

However, both were initially rejected at the US border and deported to Mexico, where they were kidnapped.. The first to be released was Wilto, who was found by a US border agent wandering all alone in the middle of the Texas desert..

“Can you help me?” the boy asked the CBP agent, who recorded the conversation in a video that went around the world, thanks to the fact that the US media echoed it.. “What happened?” the agent asked in Spanish, to which the minor replied between sobs and indicating behind that “I came with a group of people and they left me stranded and I don't know where they are.”.

The reunion between Meylin and Wilto occurred on the same day that the President of the United States, Joe Biden, prohibited this Friday that migrant children be separated from their fathers and mothers when they are caught crossing the border irregularly..

As published by the US newspaper 'The Hill', Biden thus puts an end to the immigration policy of his predecessor Donald Trump, called 'Zero Tolerance'. Thus, it revealed that “the interim commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Troy Miller, issued a memorandum to all CBP chiefs in which it prohibits the separation of children from their parents or guardians” when they enter the US illegally..

According to an NBC News report this month, the families of 391 children separated by the Trump-era policy have yet to be found, when more than 5,500 migrant families were separated between July 2017 and June 2017. 2018, according to data from the American Civil Liberties Union.