Mexico City, Apr 3 (EFE).- A week after 39 migrants died in a fire at a Mexican National Institute of Migration (INM) detention center, unknowns persist about how it happened, the possible negligence and the responsibility of the state.
These are the six keys to understanding what has happened since the fire broke out at the immigration station in Ciudad Juarez (Chihuahua) on the border on Monday, March 27:
THE FACTS
Last Monday night, after a day of arrests of migrants in Ciudad Juárez, about 70 people remained detained at the immigration station, where 39 of them died after a fire broke out with causes yet to be determined inside the government facility. .
According to the official story, the fire was started by the migrants themselves by burning some mattresses in protest when they found out they were going to be deported.
The official count of deaths began at 37 and varied on several occasions due to the uncertainty of relatives and friends of those in custody. There were also 28 seriously injured, of whom four have been discharged and 24 remain hospitalized, some with delicate prognoses.
Among the dead are six Hondurans, seven Salvadorans, 18 Guatemalans, seven Venezuelans and one Colombian.
2. ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE
Hours after the event, a video was leaked that in 32 seconds shows how the agents in charge of the detention center fled the place without attending to the migrants, while the room filled with smoke.
This has opened the door to speculation about the alleged negligence and omission of the workers, among whom were employees of the INM and the private security company Camsa.
According to testimonies from migrants, people who had regularized their stay in Mexico were detained at the station.
3. THE JUDICIAL INVESTIGATION
The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) took over the case, which to date has resulted in five arrests: two guards from the private security company, three INM officials, and the migrant who allegedly started the fire. There is a third company employee who has not been located.
But in the various appearances by the Secretary for Citizen Security and Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, and the prosecutor specialized in human rights, Sara Irena Herrerías, they have avoided giving details about the investigation, alleging that the investigations are in progress.
Both assured that “there will be no impunity” and that the investigation will go “as far as it touches”, referring to the possible repercussion on senior government officials.
4. THE GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
Faced with the multiple human rights organizations that have denounced the government’s responsibility, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has responded ambiguously.
Last Tuesday, he defined the detention center as a “shelter” and blamed the migrants for the tragedy, only to assure days later that the event “moved” him and “broke his soul.”
During his visit to Ciudad Juarez last Friday, López Obrador avoided addressing the claims of migrants who greeted him with protests and shouts of “Justice!”
5. A REPRESSIVE IMMIGRATION POLICY AT THE MERCY OF THE US.
The death of the 39 migrants occurs amid criticism of Mexico for its repressive immigration policy aligned with that of the United States, the country that most of those who transit through Mexican territory aspire to reach.
At the beginning of the year, the Government of López Obrador agreed to receive 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua, one of the reasons that have saturated the border.
According to Mexican civil organizations, 2022 was, with 900 deaths, the most tragic year for migrants in Mexico.
6. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION TRAGEDIES
It is not the first time that an INM detention center has been the focus of a tragedy. In addition to the complaints of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and human rights violations, two similar cases have occurred in recent years, in the states of Tabasco and Coahuila, in which only one death occurred.
At the end of 2019, at a station in the southern city of Tapachula (Chiapas), a Haitian migrant died after 20 days without receiving medical attention.
