Recriminations in Mexico for migrant deaths fuel tension in the race for the presidency

The fire at a migrant detention center in Mexico that killed dozens has sparked recriminations inside and outside the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, exposing tensions in his party ahead of next year’s presidential election.

Thirty-nine people died at the facility in the border city of Ciudad Juárez across from El Paso, Texas. López Obrador initially said the fire was set by detained immigrants protesting their impending deportation.

Video footage on social media purporting to show the fire prompted angry questions about why the mostly Central American migrant men were fatally trapped inside, even as authorities said they had safely evacuated all the women. of your section.

The 30-second video, which Interior Minister Adán Augusto López said came from the state government, shows uniformed officers walking past a locked cell door as men behind tried to get out as the room filled with smoke.

“The entire government is to blame here,” said Rosa María González, an opposition lawmaker who heads the lower house of congress’ migration commission. She called it “a crime” not to intervene while the migrants were engulfed in smoke and flames.

Critics of the government urged the head of the National Migration Institute (INM) to resign. Senior government officials vying to succeed López Obrador have been embroiled in debates over the scope of responsibilities.

The president vowed to punish those responsible for the deaths, but on Wednesday accused the media of “sensationalism” and “trafficking in human suffering.”

López Obrador has weathered past crises, enduring temporary dips in his popularity, which remains far stronger than most leaders of the major economies.

A daily monitoring poll conducted by Consulta Mitofsky on Wednesday showed that his approval rating had fallen overnight to its lowest level in two months, but remained above 60%.

Mexican presidents serve a single six-year term. López Obrador’s successor will be elected in June 2024, and whoever becomes his party’s nominee is considered a strong favourite.

Fire in Mexico hits families in Latin America

The last time Ana Marina López heard from her husband Bacilio Sutuj Saravia, a 51-year-old Guatemalan migrant, was when he told his family that he had been detained by Mexican immigration agents at the US-Mexico border.

That was two days before the fire in Ciudad Juárez. His name later appeared on a government list of victims of the fire, which did not specify whether he was among the dead or hospitalized. That has left López and his daughter, in their small town in Guatemala, clinging to the hope that he might still be alive.

And they are not the only ones.

While the images of the devastating fire dominated the news and social networks, families throughout America suffer the agony of waiting for news of their loved ones. The grief and uncertainty of family members underscores how the effects of migration extend far beyond the people who embark on the perilous journey north, touching the lives of people across the region.

In Ciudad Juárez, a Venezuelan woman awaited news of her brother, sedated and intubated in a hospital. In Honduras, several families watched in shock as they watched videos of guards fleeing the rising smoke and flames at the immigration center.

And in Guatemala, López held a photograph of her husband in a cowboy hat, not sure if he was dead or alive.

“It can’t happen like this. They are people, they are human,” she said. “What I ask for is justice, that they are not animals to be treated like this.”

Little was known about the cause of Monday’s fire, and authorities were investigating eight people, including a migrant, who may have started it.

In the mountains dotted with coffee plantations in western Honduras, three families horrified by security camera video await confirmation of the fate of their children. The three friends left together for the United States from their small town of Protection. Like many in that rural area, the men expected to work and send money to support their families.

[Con información de Reuters y The Associated Press]

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and activate notifications, or follow us on social networks: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.