Guatemalan man deported from US and wife found dead in sugar field, baby alive beside them

GUATEMALA CITY - A Guatemalan man deported from the United States and his wife, who recently self-deported to join him, were found dead in a sugarcane field in southwestern Guatemala, authorities said on July 28.

Their one-year-old daughter was discovered alive beside them.

Nixon Giovanni Perez, 43, and Glendy Marisol Gonzalez, 25, were found with their hands tied behind their backs in a field outside the city of Retalhuleu, about 180km west of the capital Guatemala City, photos reviewed by Reuters showed.

Guatemala’s prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the infant girl and the couple’s two other children were placed in the care of extended family members. The pair had been reported missing last week, according to local news reports.

Their deaths underscore the dangers and hardships that can await immigrants deported from the United States amid a mass deportation drive by President Donald Trump’s administration.

The couple’s troubles began in 2025 when Perez and his brother were detained by immigration agents in Overland, Missouri, on their way to roofing jobs, Perez’s brother Rolando told St Louis Public Radio.

Perez, who had fled violence and poverty in Guatemala, was deported in 2025. Gonzalez self-deported to Guatemala in recent weeks to join her husband, Rolando said.

Representatives for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Overland police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Missouri Workers Centre said it will hold a vigil on Aug 2 for Perez and Gonzalez, who was a member of an immigrants’ rights organising committee of the workers’ group.

“Glendy came to our Fuerza meetings three weeks after giving birth. She was working two jobs, bringing new members, showing up - even as her world was being torn apart,” they said on social media.

“In June, to protect her daughters and keep the rest of her family together - and fearing she might lose custody of the girls - Glendy made the impossible decision to go back to Guatemala, even with an asylum court date set for 2027.”

Nearly 32,000 people have been deported to Guatemala in the first six months of 2026, according to UN data, a 47 per cent increase from the same period in 2025. More than 90 per cent of deportees were sent from the United States, and the rest from Mexico.

Guatemala’s government, which attributes a wave of murders that spiked over the last week to organised crime, on July 27 announced a plan to strengthen the country’s security measures. REUTERS