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Her name is Karla Patricia Chávez Joya. She allegedly organized an operation to transport 70 illegal immigrants in a trailer from near the US-Mexican border to Houston, a move that resulted in the deaths of 19 passengers by asphyxiation. She was born in Honduras, but is an American citizen.

In one of life's ironies, Chávez was arrested while trying to sneak across the border from Guatemala into Honduras. She was handed over to US authorities and brought back to Texas, where she and her alleged accomplices may face the death penalty.

The incident is considered the worst-ever tragedy in the history of trafficking of undocumented migrants into the United States and its alleged organizer is a young woman of 25 years. Karla Patricia doesn't speak English and has shoulder-length chestnut hair. It is alleged that she fled the US when it appeared that one of her human smuggling business deals might run into serious problems. By all indications, it did.

Chávez Joya was detained by Guatemalan authorities and expelled to the United States, where she was arrested upon arrival. Federal prosecutor Michael Shelby hailed the bust as a law enforcement triumph in "the worst tragedy in illegal alien smuggling in the nation's history." He accused Chávez of being in charge of food, lodging and travel arrangements for the illegal immigrants.


Shelby said that Chávez and 13 other members of her alleged "coyote gang" will face 58 counts of transporting illegal aliens. Five of those accused remain at large.

Because people died in the process, those convicted could be sentenced to death or receive life imprisonment. As the alleged ringleader, Chávez is likely to get the heaviest sentence if she is convicted. Shelby also noted the arrests of Claudia Carrizales de Villa, a 34-year-old woman of Mexican origin who lives in Harlingen, Texas, and six other individuals. The nine suspects are being held without bail.

On the night of May 13 at least 74 immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala entered the trailer of a refrigerated chicken truck at Harlingen, bound for Houston. In the unventilated trailer the temperature soon rose and the passengers began to suffocate. Desperate efforts to break out the signal lights to create airholes into the trailer, and to wave clothing out those holes to summon help from passersby, were ineffective to save the lives of 19 of the passengers.

Chávez Joya was born in San Pedro Sula, 240 kilometers north of Tegucigalpa, but as she's also an American citizen, Guatemala decided to turn her over to the American authorities rather than deport her to Honduras. "Those who traffic in human beings have to know that there are severe consequences for their conduct, that their greed carries a price, and that price is going to be high," a spokesperson for the district attorney's office told The Panama News.




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