accident with at least 38 dead and 28 injured; Mexican Chancellor Marcelo Ebrard stated that “those directly responsible for the facts” were brought before the Attorney General’s Office.
Replay/twitter/@EmmaRincon
A video shared on social media shows the moment a fire breaks out at a migrant detention center Mexico. At least 38 people died and another 28 were injured. Initially, there was talk of 39 and 40 fatalities. It can be analyzed from the records that the authorities made no effort to help the detainees. The accident happened on Monday evening the 27th (earlier Tuesday the 28th in Brazil) in Ciudad Juárez on the border with the United States. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in a press statement that the fire was related to a protest by migrants after they learned of their deportation. “In protest, they put mattresses by the door of the shelter and set them on fire. They did not imagine that this would cause this terrible calamity,” added López Obrador, confirming the number of customs. Surveillance camera images released by the Mexican press and authenticated by the Mexican government show a group of people, apparently migrants, kicking at a gate and trying to open it as the fire spreads through the site , on which they are included. At the same time, at least three uniformed migration agents are circling on the other side of the gate without making any visible auxiliary manoeuvres. After that, the smoke enters the place.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter that “those directly responsible for the facts have been presented to the Attorney General’s Office.” He did not give names. The institute added that at the time of the fire there were one person from Colombia, one from Ecuador, 12 from El Salvador, 28 from Guatemala, 13 from Honduras and 13 from Venezuela in the detention center at the time of the fire. The INM did not release the number of victims by nationality, but the government of Guatemala confirmed the deaths of 28 of its citizens. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also reported the death of one of its citizens. The tragedy triggered many grief reactions. United Nations SecretaryGeneral António Guterres has called for a “comprehensive investigation” into the incident, said his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric. However, US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, according to a statement, viewed this as a “reminder of the risks of irregular migration” and the urgency of fixing a “broken immigration system”.
Today 40 migrants (several Venezuelans) were burned in a detention center in Mexico. López Obrador accused migrants of setting the fire. However, in this video you can see how the guards are closed to the calcinándos migrants:pic.twitter.com/o9eZdkokhT
— Emmanuel Rincon (@EmmaRincon) March 28, 2023
Amnesty International said the fire was “a consequence of restrictive and cruel migration policies shared by the governments of Mexico and the United States.” “How is it possible that the Mexican authorities left people locked up with no way of escaping the fire?” said Erika Guevara Rosas, the organization’s Americas director, in a statement. A recent report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that around 4,400 migrants have died or disappeared along the 3,180kilometer border between Mexico and the United States since 2014. US President Joe Biden has tightened immigration policies, forcing migrants from Ukraine, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti to seek asylum from transit countries or through online consultations. The measures come as the Democratic president is accused by the Republican opposition of losing control of the border, with more than 4.5 million undocumented migrants intercepted in the region since he took office.