The Attorney General of Mexico agreed to proceed criminally against the head of the National Institute of Migration for the case of the 40 migrants who died locked up in a fire that occurred last month in a detention center in Ciudad Juárez.
Federal sources told the AP and Reuters press agencies that Francisco Garduño will be prosecuted for alleged criminal conduct by failing to comply with his obligations to monitor, protect and provide security to the people and facilities under his charge.
In addition, a statement from the prosecutor’s office reported that an immigration officer identified as Antonio “N” and public servants Salvador “N”, Juan “N”, Cecilia “N” and Eduardo “N” will also be prosecuted, who, “They are directly linked to the behaviors that generated the homicides and the injuries suffered by the victims” on the night of March 27.
Five people (three migration officials, a private guard and the Venezuelan migrant who allegedly started the fire) were already under investigation for alleged homicide and injuries, since thirty people were injured in the event.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday that the migrants were unable to escape because the guards who had the keys to the cell were not at the scene when the fire started.
In video footage from a security camera, guards can be seen leaving the scene as they started fire on some mattresses inside a cell where dozens of migrants were being held without making any attempt to free them.
So far it is not clear who had the keys to the cell or if there was more than one set.
Among the victims were migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, but most of the dead were Guatemalans.
[Con información de AP y Reuters]
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