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The Mexican Prosecutor's Office criminally proceeds against the director of the National Institute of Migration for the fire in Ciudad Juárez

2023-04-12T14:30:18.513Z


López Obrador assures that the guards did not have the key to the migrants' cells when the fire started in the detention center in which 40 people died.


The Attorney General of Mexico reported on Tuesday that it will proceed criminally against the director of the National Institute of Migration (INM), Francisco Garduño, for the fire that on March 27 caused the death of 40 migrants in a detention center in Ciudad Juárez, in the state of Chihuahua, located across the border from the Texan city of El Paso.

Garduño will be accused of failing to comply with his obligations to monitor, protect and provide security to the people and facilities in his charge, the Prosecutor's Office said in a statement, which will also act against four public workers identified as Salvador, Juan, Cecilia and Eduardo, "linked directly with the behaviors that generated the homicides and the injuries suffered by the victims".

The Federal Control judge in Ciudad Juárez linked to the process on April 4 other five people accused of the fire, identified in the Mexican press as INM officials Daniel Goray, Rodolfo Collazo and Gloria Ramos;

guard Alan Pascual Ventura;

and the migrant Jaison Daniel Catari (who is accused of starting the fire by burning some mattresses in a protest).

Vigil for the victims of the fire in Ciudad Juárez on March 28, 2023. Christian Chavez / AP

The fire started in a cell with 66 men from Central and South America, after some mattresses were set on fire.

As López Obrador explained, it was a protest after "they found out they were going to be deported."

The fire killed six Hondurans, seven Salvadorans, 19 Guatemalans, seven Venezuelans and one Colombian.

The Salvadoran government described it as a "State crime" and demanded the removal of those responsible for Mexico's migration policy.

[“This fire is the result of the pressure cooker that Ciudad Juárez has turned into on the immigration issue,” experts denounce]

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday that

the guards did not have the keys to the cell

when the fire started.

In images from a security camera, some guards can be seen leaving the room while he started a fire on some mattresses inside the cell where dozens of migrants were, without apparently making an attempt to free them.

Bodies of Guatemalans killed in the fire in Mexico will be repatriated in a military plane

April 12, 202300:59

Repatriation of Guatemalan migrants

The Government of Guatemala has reported that the

bodies of 17 Guatemalan migrants

who died in the fire have arrived in the country on an Air Force plane, being received by relatives.

"Daddy, son, my love," was heard in the silence of the moment of his arrival, according to The Associated Press news agency.

The coffins, covered by the national flag, were placed in a line, with wreaths and photographs of the migrants.

The seven Salvadorans who died in the fire in Mexico are buried in their homeland

April 11, 202301:45

Diego Coj, uncle of Manuel Alexander Chox, one of the deceased, said that the migrant's family was shocked, that they still could not believe the tragedy and that they were waiting for justice.

“Right now we are waiting for the body of our relative,

for the authorities to investigate so that they answer for their lives

,” said Coj.

Among the deceased is Bacilio Sutuj, a 51-year-old Guatemalan from San Martín Jilotepeque, who had not told his family of his intention to migrate until two days before the fire, when he told them that he had been detained by Mexican immigration.

Guatemalan Foreign Minister Mario Búcaro accompanied the bodies on the Mexican Air Force plane and, upon arrival in Guatemala, described the fire as a terrible tragedy.

He said that "trial, punishment and reparation"

will be sought

and that, under Mexican law, the Guatemalan government became a party to the criminal process.

Relatives of a Salvadoran killed in the Ciudad Juárez fire lament his "barbaric agony"

April 10, 202300:54

After the arrival of the bodies and a minute of silence, funeral home personnel paid by the Guatemalan Administration loaded the coffins into trucks to take them to their communities.

Most will arrive at their destinations at dawn on Wednesday to be veiled and some buried on Thursday.

The repatriation tasks for the victims began last week, first with the remains of a Colombian and on Friday with seven Salvadorans.

On Tuesday the 17 Guatemalans and six Hondurans returned.

El Salvador demands that Mexico punish "with prison" for the death of 40 migrants in Ciudad Juárez

April 10, 202300:57

According to the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry, 19 of the 40 deceased were of Guatemalan origin.

However, two of the deceased who are believed to be Guatemalans were not repatriated as their identity could not be established because one did not have any identification documents and the other had burns on his hands that prevented his fingerprints from being taken.

The Guatemalan authorities will carry out DNA tests to identify them.

According to Mexican civil organizations, 2022 was the most tragic fiscal year for migrants in Mexico, with 900 deaths in the attempt to cross into the United States without documents.

During that period, 2.76 million were intercepted trying to cross the border.

With information from Ap and Efe.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2023-04-12

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