The Guatemalan government declared national mourning for three days after the death of 28 Guatemalan migrants in the fire from a Mexico Migration detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
In the fatal fire, 13 Honduran migrants and one Colombian also died, according to official information shared by the governments of Honduras and Colombia. The Mexican government has oscillated the balance of victims between 38 and 40 deaths.
Kevin López Oliva, Secretary of Social Communication of the Guatemalan presidency reported the measure on his Twitter account.
When reporting the decision, government officials expressed their condolences to the relatives of the victims, with whom the repatriation processes are already being coordinated.
This was confirmed by Stuard Rodríguez, director of the Guatemalan Institute of Migration, when reporting that the agency is advancing in coordination, along with 15 other institutions, to receive the bodies in the city of Tecun Umán. More details were not reported.
The Guatemalan Foreign Ministry has not confirmed the names of the deceased and although it had previously reported that there were 28, the number could vary because some remain hospitalized.
reactions
While the country prepares for the repatriation of the victims, organizations assure that this tragedy is the product of the lack of development policies in the countries of origin.
“Once again the authorities reveal themselves incapable of handling the immigration issue. It reveals completely wrong policies in the sense of migration, now it is useless to look for culprits and especially among migrants”, said Francisco Pellizari, director of Casa del Migrante. “Here the issue is who causes the migration, who causes this type of situation.”
He also pointed to the serious situation that migrants live in border cities and the conditions in the shelters.
“Ciudad Juárez has more than 30,000 migrants who are surviving at the border waiting for the chance to have a hearing and a chance to be in the United States. This causes a lot of violence, a lot of discomfort,” Pellizari said.
According to the National Institute of Migration of Mexico, some 11,868 people were in an irregular migratory situation in Ciudad Juárez in 2022.
[Con reporte de Eugenia Sagastume, corresponsal de la Voz de América en Guatemala]
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