A new video released this Thursday shows the minute by minute of the massacre that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, where 40 migrants died burned and suffocated inside a detention cell of the National Institute of Migration (Inami).
The images, which last 16 minutes, show from different security cameras what happened on March 27 in the federal building.
From the morning, when dozens of handcuffed migrants entered the government office, until after 8:30 p.m., when the fire and chaos broke out.
The tragedy shocked a country accustomed to a fierce immigration policy.
For the fire, the head of the federal immigration authority, Francisco Garduño, has been charged this Tuesday for improper exercise of public service.
However, he continues in his position.
Besides,
Seven other officials have been linked to a judicial process, one of them the Inami delegate in Chihuahua, Salvador González.
A security guard from a private company and one of the migrants, accused of homicide and injuries, are also in preventive detention.
The images obtained by
El Diario de Juárez
allow a faithful reconstruction of what happened that Monday in March.
The video is made up of cameras located at different angles and rooms as had not been made public until now.
The Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, who is leading the morning conferences while President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recovers from covid-19, said this Thursday that the Prosecutor's Office was not aware of these images.
The video begins at 11:13 in the morning, when dozens of migrants enter in single file, with their hands tied behind their backs, through the main corridor of the center, accompanied by Inami agents.
Early that day, a brutal raid broke out in the streets of Ciudad Juárez.
The border town has become a pressure cooker for months, with thousands of people stranded, who await the hope of getting an appointment with the US authorities to legally cross the border.
While this is happening, the migrants, mostly from Venezuela and Central America, survive on small jobs and the charity of shelters and human rights associations.
On March 12, some 600 desperate migrants blocked the main bridge between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso to demand that procedures be expedited.
The episode was highly criticized by the mayor of the town, the Morenista Cruz Pérez, who even said: "We are running out of patience."
In this context, on March 27, the municipal authorities and the Inami —it is still unknown who ordered the raid— arrested more than 60 people, most of them Venezuelans, and took them to the center for not having their papers in order.
The arrests, as EL PAÍS has learned, occurred when leaving hospitals, on the sidewalks, when migrants were selling popsicles or cleaning windows, or inside stores like Oxxo.
Some of the people detained had permission to legally stay in Mexico.
At 12:30 p.m., the images show dozens of men inside a cell with colored mats.
Some of them, according to the Investigation Unit of Crimes for Migrants of the Attorney General's Office, had been there since February 24, more than a month.
The agency has not specified how many or of what nationalities.
About two hours later, detainees begin to line up inside the cell, presumably to receive food or water.
There are more than 60. On the other side, six officials guard the room, while they give way to the entry and exit of the detainees to a waiting room.
The images jump until 8:13 p.m.
The moods are different.
Migrants crowd against the gate that connects with the agents.
Some climb the bars and, although the video has no sound, you can see how they try to communicate.
The guard who is currently watching is leaning back in a chair, with his hands behind his back.
As revealed in the trial attended by journalists and activists, the detention center ran out of water, toilet paper, and food for everyone did not arrive either.
A security guard from the private company Camsa said that he had notified the head of material resources of everything that was missing.
About the water, they told him to put the jugs directly from the tap.
"An officer told me that she should not make that indication, because the water was not drinkable because the water filters had not been changed for a long time and they had a yellow hue," said Omar Indalecio PM before the judge.
No keys or fire extinguisher
At 8:27 p.m., the migrants begin to protest, apparently because of these conditions, and begin to cover the cell with the mattresses that were spread out on the floor.
They pile them up until they cover the entire entrance.
The guard, at first, doesn't react.
Then he unsuccessfully tries to move some of the mats.
After a few moments, three immigration agents arrive, some climb on the table and try to talk to the migrants, and others talk on the phone.
Little by little, the scene turns gray.
Although from the angle of that camera the fire is not observed, the smoke is noticeable.
The migrants remove some of the mattresses from the front door of the cell.
There the agents approach, but they do not open it.
None of those responsible for the immigration center appear with keys or a fire extinguisher.
Little by little, the smoke becomes more intense and begins to blur the images.
In those final moments, there are four officials.
Two with their cell phones and another two conversing with the migrants.
Seconds later you begin to see the glow of the fire and finally the flames.
At 8:31 p.m., all officials have left the room, no one has tried to open the door for the migrants, who have been locked in with the fire.
Witnesses to the fire recounted that at that time the screams and kicks against the walls of the people trapped behind the bars could be heard.
There were 68 men inside, 37 died inside that cell and three later in hospitals.
Another 27 suffered injuries, some are still hospitalized.
At that same time, the video changes rooms to the women's holding cell.
There were 15 women in a room with bunk beds.
They are seen talking until one of them begins to cover her face with her shirt.
A few seconds later, they are followed by all the others.
Smoke begins to fill this room as well.
Until someone - who is not seen on the video - opens the door for them to start leaving.
No victims recorded.
The first fire extinguisher that appears in the video arrives at 8:33 p.m. when an agent runs in with him through the front door.
He is late to stop the powerful fire that has already turned the federal building into a chimney.
After a few minutes, the agents of the National Guard enter, also running, leaving shortly after.
The fire is put out by the fire department, although it no longer appears in the video.
According to the director of Civil Protection of Juárez, Roberto Briones, nobody called the emergency service.
It was a fire captain who was on duty in the area who saw the smoke and notified the central.
"It was a coincidence, that's why fortunately we were able to still get people alive," says Briones, who points out that his workers made more than 60 trips.
subscribe here
to the
EL PAÍS México
newsletter and receive all the key information on current affairs in this country