The remains of the seven Salvadoran migrants killed in the fire at a detention center in Ciudad Juárez arrived in The Savior and they were handed over to their families, the Central American country’s foreign ministry reported this Sunday.
“The bodies were handed over to their families,” Cindy Portal, Vice Minister of Diaspora and Human Mobility, said at a press conference.
In the March 27 fire at the detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, 40 migrants died, including 18 Guatemalans, seven Salvadorans, seven Venezuelans, six Hondurans and one Colombian. Local authorities did not report the latest fatality.
“After verifying and consolidating all the required documentation, the bodies left Ciudad Juárez on Thursday night in a hearse, duly escorted, heading for our country. The bodies were delivered to their families,” said the vice minister.
– Chancellery of El Salvador ���� (@cancilleriasv)
April 9, 2023
The remains of the seven Salvadorans were transported in a hearse from Ciudad Juárez, a journey of 3,500 kilometers, due to the difficulty of getting flights during Holy Week, Portal explained.
“We gave ourselves the task that the best and most expeditious way to be able to repatriate the bodies of the compatriots was by land,” he said.
“On April 6, that hearse left Ciudad Juárez,” with a police escort, and the company guaranteed that it would arrive in the country in 72 hours, added the vice minister.
The Mexican authorities reported the capture of a migrant accused of causing the fire and four officials accused of not having done anything to save the inmates.
On March 29, El Salvador expressed “its strongest condemnation” for the actions of the detention center staff and this Sunday Portal urged Mexico to continue with this judicial process.
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has promised that the case will not go unpunished.
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