In an unsuccessful attempt to enter the United States from Mexico, a seven-year-old Venezuelan girl drowned in the Rio Grande after a rip current separated her from her mother.

U.S. authorities had requested assistance locating a missing girl dressed in a red jacket, pants, and white socks. Mexican migration officials found the girl's body in a stretch of river in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, about 10 a.m. on Monday.

Mexico's migration institute said in a statement it mourned the girl's death. It released a photo showing two officials in orange life vests removing a child's body from the water by the shoulders and ankles, Reuters reported. 

Many migrants have died attempting to reach Mexico's northern border with the United States, including adults and children who drowned while trying to cross the river that separates the two countries.

The girl, identified as Victoria Lugo, and her mother, Mayerling Fuenmayor, 36, was among a large group of Venezuelan migrants traveling over a stretch of the river. Fuenmayor lost her daughter's hand as the tide took her down the river, according to the Val Verde County Sheriff's Office.

A family member told DailyMail, Fuenmayor's journey to the United States began after she left her work as a school teacher in the Venezuelan state of Falcón. In July or August of 2021, she sold her house.

The single mother returned to her mother's home in the state of Zulia with Lugo and began securing passports in preparation for a trip to Mexico in February or March.

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Mexico to Require Visa for Venezuelans

Fuenmayor changed her travel plans after discovering that the Mexican government would begin requiring travel visas from Venezuelan nationals wishing to enter the country as of January 21 - at the demand of the U.S. government to reduce migration at the southern border.

Last Thursday, she flew to Colombia, where she and Lugo boarded a connecting flight to Mexico. They had spent the weekend at the home of a childhood friend of Fuenmayor's and were on their way to the U.S. border on Monday when tragedy struck.

Carlos Vecchio, the U.S. ambassador under Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, said he reached out to Fuenmayor and pledged the government's complete support.

Vecchio also blamed President Nicolás Maduro's communist regime for causing a humanitarian crisis that has displaced more than 6 million Venezuelans.

"Thousands of Venezuelans are risking everything to flee the Maduro dictatorship's disaster, hoping for a better present and future," Vecchio stated, according to Univision.

"There are currently about 6 million exiles. To end the international migrant crisis involving Venezuelans, we must address the source of the problem," he added.

According to data released by the Customs and Border Protection in December 2021, the U.S. has reported 33,762 encounters with Venezuelan migrants during the first two months of the fiscal year 2022.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

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