Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters that any action that might have sparked the deadly fire at a migrant detention center that claimed the lives of 38 men this week will not go unpunished.
“It is clear from the investigation that there was negligence, but we still need to know exactly what happened,” he said in an interview. press conference Wednesday morning. «There will be no impunity.»
At the time of the fire, immigration agents and security personnel from a private company were in the center, according to López Obrador.
He country’s attorney general is investigating if charges need to be brought, he said.
The fire that started Monday night inside the Ciudad Juárez Provisional Estancia, in front of El Paso, Texas, is one of the Deadliest Immigration Tragedies near the US-Mexico border in recent years.
López Obrador has extended his condolences to six Latin American countries after the release of the names of the victims and nationalities.
All the people who died were men. Twenty-eight were from Guatemala, 13 were from Honduras, another 13 were from Venezuela, 12 were from El Salvador, one man was from Colombia and another was from Ecuador, authorities said.
Foreign Relations of Mexico Marcelo Ebrard said His office has been in contact with leadership in the six countries «to report the tragedy that occurred in Ciudad Juárez and support their consulates to help the victims and families affected.»
Acting US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy A. Miller said in a declaration that his office «is prepared to use humanitarian parole on a case-by-case basis to allow seriously injured people to receive critical care at medical facilities in the United States.»
A 30 second video from inside the center posted on Facebook by Rescue Team Cd Juárez, a local group that helps in emergency events, shows the fire when someone behind bars begins to kick the lock in an attempt to open it. Two guards can be seen standing in front of the closed door, pacing back and forth, until black smoke covered the entire room.
On Tuesday, López Obrador said that some of the detained migrants put small mattresses at the center’s door and set them on fire «as a form of protest… after, we believe, they found out they would be deported.»
But the government’s version has been met with rejection by immigrants in the area and by immigrant and human rights groups that work with immigrant families.
“This occurred inside a government-run facility in Mexico. They could have opened the cell to save a lot of people, but they didn’t,” said Juan Pabón, a Venezuelan migrant in Ciudad Juárez.
At the press conference, López Obrador said: «We have preliminary versions, but we want to have all the elements,» adding that Mexico’s Secretary of Public Security, Rosa Isela Rodríguez, is expected to appear at a press conference on Wednesday for the afternoon to give more details of the incident.
Susana Gamboa, austin mullen, Natalia Obregon and Michelle Acevedo contributed.