MEXICO CITY – A Mexican federal judge has indicted another Venezuelan immigrant over his alleged involvement in the fire that broke out in a Mexican detention facility in March, which left forty dead and dozens of others wounded.
Mexico’s prosecutor office announced Thursday that a man named Carlos “C” had been charged with homicide and injuries caused by a fire at a detention center for migrants in Ciudad Juarez. This is across the border in El Paso.
Authorities have identified him along with another Venezuelan migrant as the persons who started the fire. It was the most deadly ever in a Mexican immigration facility.
The tragedy and its aftermath caught the world’s attention in the first half of this year, as families across the Hemisphere grieved for their loved ones and demanded justice.
The Mexican president Andres Manuel López Obrador, as well as the American authorities who have been constantly pressuring the Mexican government in order to stop the influx of people from Latin America and Caribbean, also expressed their disapproval of the way migrants were treated.
A small group of migrants in detention on March 27 lit a fire inside their cells to protest the conditions. The smoke from their mattresses, which were highly flammable, quickly filled the room and guards fled before unlocking the cell.
As a result, the authorities have opened criminal proceedings for Francisco Garduno and another director of Mexico’s National Migration Institute. They were accused of unlawful public service, failure to perform duties and asphyxiating many migrants.
The authorities also arrested six other immigration officers and a private security officer, as well as the other migrant. They charged them with homicide, and other injuries that were caused by the fire. NMI shut down small and medium detention centers like the one in Ciudad Juarez, and started a review of the conditions in larger facilities.
