(CNN)By the time he was found, the boy was barely alive. The ten-year-old’s neck had been cut, leaving a nearly 3-inch (7cm) wound. Disturbing photos taken by the authorities who found him and obtained by CNN show the boy in jeans, a US football sweatshirt and a light jacket, lying in the curve of his dead father’s arm.
They had been brutally attacked while traveling across Veracruz state in Mexico, in a tragedy that underscores the desperation driving so many Central Americans to make the dangerous trek north to the United States by land, often putting their lives in the hands of smugglers.
The travelers were Guatemalan, according to President of the Morelos State Human Rights Commission Raúl Hernández. The boy, Cristian, and his father Rudy, 37, left from Guatemala on May 28 this year. Cristian’s uncle and teenage cousin were also on the trip. In total, it was a small group: Two brothers traveling together, each bringing a son.
