Mexican authorities to probe migrant fire deaths as homicides
The fire that recently killed about 40 migrants in a detention center in Mexico is now being investigated as a homicide case, authorities say.
The announcement came Wednesday after a video from the center in Ciudad Juárez was released showing uniformed workers walking away from the blaze as people were still locked inside.
Authorities said they’d pinpointed eight suspects including federal and state agents and said they plan to issue four arrest warrants in the coming days, the New York Times reported.
“None of the public servants, nor the private security guards, took any action to open the door for the migrants who were inside where the fire was,” Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra, a leading federal human rights prosecutor, was quoted as saying at a press conference.
Authorities also said they may investigate a migrant suspected of starting the deadly fire.
All of the victims were male, Reuters reported, and the government is feeling pressured to explain how they perished while all women at the site were safely evacuated.
One witness, a Venezuelan migrant named Viangly Infante Padrón, claims she heard an official say, “Take the women out” before she saw the men stuck inside.
“I started crying and I said: ‘How is it that they’re burning? Why are you not opening the door?’” Padrón was quoted as saying. Her husband, who was trapped inside, is now in the hospital.
The case that has brought renewed scrutiny to conditions facing migrants who are stopped in Mexico as they try to enter the U.S.
Some activist groups have blamed overcrowding and “inhumane” conditions for the tragedy that occurred Monday, but the Mexican government had denied any wrongdoing up until this point.
“Our country’s immigration policy is one of respect for human rights,” said Rosa Icela Rodríguez, the government’s secretary of security. “This unfortunate event, which is the responsibility of public servants and guards who have been identified, is not the policy of our country.”
