Venezuelan migrant girl dies crossing river between Mexico and US

Government personnel recover the body of a migrant minor at the Rio Bravo, probably a Venezuelan national, days after the U.S. Border Patrol agents alerted the Mexican authorities about a missing girl in the area, in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico January 18, 2022. Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM)/Handout via REUTERS

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The body of a girl thought to be Venezuelan was found in the waters of the Rio Grande river between Mexico and United States, officials said on Tuesday, the latest instance in which a migrant has died while trying to reach the United States.

U.S. authorities had requested help to find a missing girl who was wearing a red jacket, jeans and white socks. Mexican migration officials found the girl's body in a stretch of river in Ciudad Acuna, bordering Texas.

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

Many migrants have died while crossing Mexico to its northern border with the United States, including both adults and children who have drowned while trying to ford the river that divides the two countries.

The number of Venezuelans crossing Mexico leapt in 2021, and Mexico's government this month imposed new visa requirements for visitors from Venezuela to try to curb migration.

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Sandra Maler)