'I told him not to' go, mother of drowned Salvadoran migrant laments

Rosa Ramirez, mother of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez, a migrant who drowned in the Rio Grande River with his daughter Valeria during their journey to the U.S., is pictured at her house in the Altavista neighbourhood in San Martin, El Salvador June 26, 2019. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - The mother of a Salvadoran man who drowned with his young daughter while trying to reach U.S. soil, becoming a global symbol of the perils of migration, said she had urged her son not to leave, fearing danger would meet him on the long journey north.

A harrowing photograph of Oscar Alberto Martinez, 25, and his 24-month-old daughter Angie Valeria lying face down on the muddy banks of the Rio Grande river between the United States and Mexico ricocheted across social media this week.