Drownings pic widow back in El Salvador

A Salvadoran woman whose husband and toddler daughter drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande into Texas this week returned to her country.

A Salvadoran woman whose husband and toddler daughter drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande into Texas this week has returned to her country ahead of the bodies of her lost loved ones, a heartbreaking photograph of whom prompted an outpouring of grief.

Tania Vanessa Avalos arrived in El Salvador with a family friend who had gone with them on their ill-fated journey to the United States. Visibly shaken, she did not comment. Officials say she has asked the media to respect her mourning and leave her alone.

Authorities decided for logistical reasons to transport by land the bodies of husband Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez, 25, and Valeria, 23 months, and they were expected to arrive Sunday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Cabrera said the tragedy "has dismayed the national and global public opinion."

Martinez and Valeria were swept away by the border river between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas, on Sunday, and their bodies were found the next morning.

The photograph of them face down along the bank with the girl tucked inside his shirt and her arm draped over his neck underscored the perils that migrants and asylum seekers face in trying to reach the United States.