The last man is called José Mynor López, he was 37 years old, he was born in Guatemala and moved to the United States like so many others. In search of a better life, a task in which he found death.
This Tuesday, rescue teams recovered the body of the only one of the six Baltimore bridge workers who was still missing, after the freighter Dali collided with the infrastructure in the early hours of March 26, causing it to sink.
The six construction employees, the only ones who lost their lives in that accident, were doing maintenance work on the Francis Scott Key, without receiving the alert or having time to flee.
They were all Hispanic. Before López, whose parents live in Dundalk (Maryland), the bodies of Alejandro Hernández Fuentes, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, Mayor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval, Carlos Daniel Hernández Estrella and Miguel Ángel Luna González were found in the Patapsco River. In addition to Guatemala, they came from El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.
“It is with a heavy heart that today marks an important milestone in our recovery efforts and brings closure to this sad passage for the loved ones of these six workers who lost their lives in this tragic event,” said Col. Roland Butler Jr. ., Superintendent of the Maryland State Police Department.
A few weeks ago, Isabel Franco, López’s widow, reflected on that definitive moment in which perhaps her husband “was desperate trying to escape.” She described him as “a good-hearted man, a great worker, always concerned about his family, fighting for us.” The couple had two children, a boy and a girl.
Meanwhile, work continues to clean the mouth of the port of Baltimore, one of the most important business ports in the United States. A series of controlled explosions are planned to be used to remove and eliminate a large section of the bridge at the top of the Dali, which was carrying 4,700 containers, of which 182 have been removed. They carry dangerous material.
“We know that to safely remove the freighter we are going to require precision to carry out this operation,” said Maryland Governor Wes Moore. “The Dali still has between 3,000 and 4,000 tons of steel on it,” he added. Those responsible for the device hope to refloat the ship before the end of this week.
In addition, the construction of a nine bridge is already planned. Its opening is scheduled for the fall of 2028 and its estimated cost amounts to $2 billion.
