Every year the world remembers the devastating 9/11 of 2001 attacks on the United States, in which nearly 3,000 people, including 19 Colombians, died. Al-Qaeda carried out four coordinated suicide attacks, with two planes striking the World Trade Center in New York City. Even 24 years later, the identities of some victims remain unknown.
Lives cut short 24 years ago
Each victim of the attacks had a unique life story. For the 19 Colombians who died on Sept. 11, 2001, these were stories of perseverance. Many left their home country, or were children of Colombian migrants who came to the United States in search of a better life.
Some were fleeing violence in Colombia. Tragically, the challenges they sought to escape followed them, cutting short their dreams one Tuesday morning.
Colombian workers at the Twin Towers
One of the victims was 31-year-old Luis Eduardo Torres. He had arrived in the United States as a teenager in the late 1980s. A stock market professional, he had just started a new job the day before as a broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, located in one of the Twin Towers.
Milton Bustillo, 37, also worked at Cantor Fitzgerald as a computer technician. He died three months after getting married and left behind a seven-month-old daughter. Cantor Fitzgerald had offices on multiple floors of the South Tower.
Another Colombian, Wilder Alfredo Gomez, 38, worked as a bartender at a restaurant in the Twin Towers since 1996. A native of Cali, he left behind four children.
Jorge Luis Moron, 39, from Barranquilla, Colombia, also died in the attacks. He had left Colombia eight years earlier and worked as a security guard in one of the Twin Towers. He was about to become a father and gain U.S. citizenship.
Sonia Ortiz left Colombia 30 years earlier and began working as a cleaner at the World Trade Center in 1973. She lived in Queens with her daughter.
Carlos Cortes Rodriguez, 58, arrived in New York in 1967 to study civil engineering at New York University. On the day of the attacks, he was in his office at Washington Group International on the 91st floor of the South Tower.
Fleeing violence in Colombia
Another Colombian who lost his life on Sept. 11 was 43-year-old Victor Hugo Paz, from Cali. He arrived in New York in the mid-1990s, fleeing violence in Colombia and after his brother was kidnapped.
Paz worked as a pastry chef at a renowned restaurant on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center.
The youngest Colombian victim
Anny Correa was the youngest Colombian victim that day. She was 25 and nearing graduation as an accountant from Berkeley College. Two months earlier, she had started working in the accounting department at Marsh & McLennan, whose office was on the 98th floor of the South Tower.
A Colombian on American Airlines Flight 11
The case of Antonio Montoya is also tragic. This 46-year-old Colombian lived in Boston, where he settled with his wife and son in 1981. His two younger daughters were born there. He had worked at the Boston Harbor Hotel for more than a decade. Montoya became a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 due to a reservation error.
He was on his way to California to visit a sister he hadn’t seen in years. Tragically, he was on the plane that terrorists crashed between the 93rd and 99th floors of the North Tower, the first impact the Twin Towers suffered that morning.
Other Colombians who died on 9/11
Pedro Francisco Checho, 35, was a vice president at Carr Futures and lived in Bayside, Queens. He sustained injuries during the attacks and tragically died on Nov. 28, 2001, nearly three months after Sept. 11.
Sharon Cristina Millan, 33, worked as an office services coordinator for Harris Beach & Wilcox, LLP. She is remembered through numerous memorials honoring the victims of 9/11, preserving her memory and legacy.
Rafael Humberto Santos, 42, a Colombian native living in Queens, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. He was one of the many Cantor Fitzgerald employees killed during the attacks on the Twin Towers.
Hernando Salas, 71, also from Colombia, is remembered through obituaries and memorials that highlight his life and the impact of his loss on family and friends. His memory lives on in the hearts of those who knew him.
Cesar Augusto Murillo, 32, was an international trader with Cantor Fitzgerald and was also killed in the attacks.
Completing the tragic list of Colombians who lost their lives that day in the United States are the following individuals, whose lives were also cut short by the criminal act:
Adriana, 32; Alejandro Castaño, 35; Aracelly Castillo, 49; Carlos Mario Muñoz, 43; Gloria Nieves, 48.