A “homicide” investigation has been opened in Mexico where eight people have been identified as allegedly responsible for the deaths of 39 migrants at a federal institute detention center in Ciudad Juarez at the gates of the United States, 30 march the Mexican authorities.
“None of the officials or private security officers took any action to open the door for the migrants who were inside while there was a fire,” the rights prosecutor said. Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra at a press conference the day after the incident.
Eight suspected perpetrators have been identified, Public Safety Secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez added. Three agents from the National Institute for Migration (INM) and five agents from a security company, “are already being heard” by the prosecution, continued the prosecutor. “The offense for which the (investigative) file has been opened is the offense of homicide,” she said, also mentioning the offense of “injury” and “damage to the property of others”. Prosecutions for other offenses such as “abuse of authority” or “ill treatment” are being considered, she said.
The prosecutor confirmed the authenticity of a 32-second video broadcast by several media including Agence France-Presse. “This video is part of the investigation file,” she said. These CCTV images show the start of the fire on the night of Monday to Tuesday. Behind bars, in the smoke, a man kicks against a closed door while another appears to put a mattress on the ground.
In the foreground, on the other side of the cell, three officers, two of whom are in uniform, retire with their backs to them, without giving them assistance. This video provoked outraged reactions from civil society. “How is it possible that the Mexican authorities left human beings locked up with no possibility of escaping the fire? asked Erika Guevara Rosas, director of Amnesty International for the Americas, in a press release. “Government, take responsibility,” read a banner held by a protester at a rally Wednesday in Mexico City.
“We are not going to hide anything and there is not going to be impunity”
During the press conference, the Secretary of Security revised the death toll upwards from 38 to 39. It also reported 27 injuries, including six in “extremely serious” condition, ten in serious condition, and nine in “delicate” condition.
The authorities have still not given details of the nationality of the victims, mentioning their country of origin, mainly from Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras) and Venezuela. Guatemala said on Tuesday that 28 of its nationals had died. El Salvador spoke of four seriously injured, asking that those responsible for the tragedy be brought to justice.
“We are not going to hide anything and there is not going to be impunity,” assured President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador. At first, the head of state believed that the migrants had lit the fire with mattresses in a movement of “protest”.
“We assume that they learned that they were going to be deported, moved,” he said Tuesday hours after this tragedy, unprecedented in facilities for migrants in Mexico.
