Authorities posted next to the bodies lying in the parking lot of the migrant detention center in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez. JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ / Portal
A “murder” investigation has been launched in Mexico, identifying eight people suspected of being responsible for the deaths of 39 migrants at a federal institute detention center in Ciudad Juárez, just outside the United States, as of Wednesday March 29 was given to the Mexican authorities.
“None of the officers or the private security police did anything to open the door to the migrants who were inside during the fire,” Prosecutor for Rights Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra said at a news conference the day after the incident .
Eight suspects have been identified, Public Safety Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez added. Three agents from the National Institute for Migration (INM) and five agents from a security firm “are already being interviewed by the prosecutor,” the prosecutor said. “The fact for which the (investigation) file was opened is the fact of killing,” she specified, and also mentioned the facts of “violation” and “damage to someone else’s property.” Prosecution for other offenses such as “abuse of office” or “ill-treatment” are planned, she said.
Migrants gather to commemorate the 39 dead at Ciudad Juarez detention center in Chihuahua state. March 29, 2023. GUILLERMO ARIAS / AFP
The prosecutor confirmed the authenticity of a 32-second video broadcast by several media outlets, including Agence France-Presse. “This video is part of the investigation file,” she said. These CCTV images show the outbreak of the fire Monday night into Tuesday. Behind bars, in the smoke, a man kicks a closed door while another appears to be laying a mattress on the floor.
The fire at the migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez in the early hours of March 28, killing at least 40 migrants… https://t.co/LdJoWJhcWF
In the foreground, on the other side of the cell, three officers, two of them in uniform, retreat with their backs to them without offering any assistance. This video triggered outraged reactions from civil society. “How is it possible that the Mexican authorities left people locked up with no way of escaping the fire? asked Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s director for the Americas, in a press release. “Government, take your responsibility,” read a banner held up by a protester at a rally in Mexico City on Wednesday.
“We will not hide anything and there will be no impunity”
During the press conference, the security minister revised the death toll up from 38 to 39. 27 injuries were also reported, including six in “extremely serious”, ten in serious and nine in “sensitive” condition.
The authorities have still not provided any information on the nationality of the victims and have mentioned their country of origin, mainly from Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras) and Venezuela. Guatemala said Tuesday that 28 of its nationals had died. El Salvador said four were seriously injured and called for those responsible for the tragedy to be brought to justice.
“We will not hide anything and there will be no impunity,” assured President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador. At first, the head of state estimated that the migrants had started the fire with mattresses in a “protest movement”.
El Presidente @lopezobrador_ expresó sus más sentidas condolencias a los familiares y gobiernos de los países de or… https://t.co/LAdKHgQGWn
“We assume that they have learned that they will be deported, that they will be deported,” he said Tuesday, hours after the tragedy, which was unprecedented in migrant facilities in Mexico.
Border rush and false rumor
“More than 1,000 migrants” attempted to cross the border between Mexico and the United States on Wednesday, US border patrol officials said, adding that they are being deported. The migrants crossed the border between the two countries on foot from Ciudad Juarez (northern Mexico), where 39 migrants died in a detention center fire Monday night, a team from AFP on the Mexican side found.
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They then surrendered to U.S. Border Patrol agents, who would “deport” them, Anthony Good, a border patrol agent from El Paso, the sister city of Juarez, Texas, said on Twitter.
Migrants cross the Rio Grande, which symbolizes the border between the United States and Mexico. March 29, 2023. CHRISTIAN CHAVEZ/AP
The United States Consulate in Ciudad Juarez has denied “rumours about the opening of the border after the Ciudad Juarez tragedy” which are “completely false”.
“The border is closed to irregular immigration! ‘ hammered the American consulate on Twitter in a message in Spanish titled ‘Don’t be fooled.’ A rumor circulated among the migrants that the United States was ready to accept some of them on humanitarian grounds, noted the AFP correspondent in Ciudad Juarez.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, after contacts with “Mexican officials on the ground,” vaguely mentioned “medical assistance here in the United States” for the “wounded.”