Ciudad Juárez (Mexico), Apr 2 (EFE).- A hundred migrants staged this Sunday a Stations of the Cross with which they walked along the limits of the Rio Grande (Rio Grande in the United States) as a tribute to the 39 migrants killed by a fire in the immigration station of the Mexican Government in Ciudad Juárez and to demand justice and a memorial to the authorities.
The migrants, mostly Venezuelans who remain stranded in this border city, participated in the representation of the crucifixion of Christ, walked in a caravan, in many cases they took off their shoes to walk barefoot and even reached the facilities of the National Institute of Migration. (INM), place where the tragedy occurred.
On the site, the president of the Ángeles Mensajeros Collective, Carlos Mayorga, who was the organizer of this act, told EFE that the representation seeks to create awareness among the general population.
“We have named this Way of the Cross: ‘Put yourself in my shoes’ and what it seeks is to create awareness in the community in general, that the only thing migrants do is look for a place to work,” he explained.
“The fact of taking off our shoes is for the community to put themselves in our shoes and understand that they are not here for fun,” he added.
In addition, the activist called on the federal authorities to destroy the government building and create a memorial for the events that occurred last Monday night.
On the night of March 27, a fire in a migration center in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, northern Mexico, killed 39 people, of whom 6 were Hondurans, 7 Salvadorans, 18 Guatemalans, 1 Colombian, and 7 Venezuelans.
In addition to the deceased, the accident left 28 injured, of which 24 remain hospitalized and only 4 have been discharged so far. There were about 70 migrants at the immigration station.
On Friday, the Government ordered the closure of the center and the Mexican Prosecutor’s Office arrested five people who are in pretrial detention, three INM officials and two agents from the private security company that operated the immigration station.
During the tour different refugees carried the cross, representing Jesus, one of them, who preferred anonymity, told EFE that a relative of his died in the place.
“In this place (INM) my cousin died. I participated in this representation for all the fallen brothers, we come from far away, we are hungry. We demand justice for them,” he stated.
Among the migrants, a woman also carried the cross during the journey, Fátima Pabón. “I believe in God and he was also a migrant. I ask the authorities for justice, we don’t have to be sad about anything like Jesus fell, he will raise us up.
While Juan Ángel Pabón asked that the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who visited Ciudad Juárez last Friday “pronounce on the murder of our migrant brothers and also on the current migratory situation.”
He said that it is important that there be a commission of representatives of the United Nations Organization and see how migrants are treated at this border.
This Sunday, the Catholic Church called on the Government of Mexico, including municipal, state and federal authorities, to stop seeing migrants as criminals and asked to treat them with dignity and humanity.
In addition, he pointed out that the tragedy that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, last Monday, March 27, in which 39 migrants died “should not go unpunished.”
On Friday, the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Mexico, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, announced that the detention station where 39 migrants died will close permanently.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor specializing in human rights from the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), Sara Irene Herrerías, pointed out that the five people detained so far as alleged perpetrators are in pretrial detention and will face a hearing to charge and link to process this Tuesday.
