Mexico began the repatriation of the 40 migrants who died in a detention center that was set on fire in northern Ciudad Juárez on March 27.
Late yesterday, the Federal Security Secretariat confirmed the arrival in Bogotá, Colombia, of the body of a person, while the remains of seven citizens of El Salvador are “in land transfer”, accompanied by agents of the National Guard.
“It is expected that this Saturday they will be crossing the border through Chiapas,” a southern state bordering Guatemala, the agency said in a statement.
Regarding migrants from Guatemala, the office indicated that “11 bodies have been identified and their air transfer is scheduled for next week,” as agreed with the government of that country.
He also reported that relatives of six deceased Honduran migrants are still carrying out the process of identifying the bodies and a flight to their country will be scheduled on a date that was not specified.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan authorities indicated that next Tuesday “personnel specialized in fingerprints will arrive to verify the identification of people,” added the secretariat in its statement.
According to the first official balance, during the incident – which occurred on March 27 – 39 people died: 18 Guatemalans, seven Salvadorans, seven Venezuelans, six Hondurans and one Colombian.
Regarding the fortieth deceased, who died after being transferred to a hospital in Mexico City, the authorities did not specify his nationality.
Meanwhile, 14 of the injured are hospitalized in various hospitals in Ciudad Juárez, five of them serious, while two others have already been discharged, the AFP news agency reported.
Another nine injured are being treated in two specialty hospitals in the Mexican capital, where they were transferred due to the seriousness of their situation, the bulletin specified.
Mexican authorities confirmed last week the capture of the migrant accused of causing the fire, who was detained along with four other people: three of them officials from the National Institute of Migration (INM) and a private security guard.
The sixth suspect, charged by the prosecution, is another private guard who remains on the run.
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, guaranteed that the case would not go unpunished.
Mexican civil organizations reported that in 2022 some 900 migrants died in Mexico while trying to cross into the United States without papers.
The region is experiencing a record migratory flow, with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants detained at the United States border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022.
The fire at the detention center broke out on the night of Monday, March 27, after at least one migrant set mattresses on fire in the middle of a protest over possible deportation.
The authorities indicated that the personnel in charge of the detention center did nothing to evacuate the migrants and that eight people had been identified as allegedly responsible for that omission.
A surveillance video was also incorporated into the investigation by the authorities in which it can be seen when the flames start, but the managers do not open the cell where the detained migrants were.
Many migrants are stuck in Ciudad Juárez because US immigration policies do not allow them to cross the border to file asylum claims.
Those who were in the center that caught fire had been detained by the Police days before after complaints from residents of Ciudad Juárez that they had been attacked by migrants who blocked the streets or asked them for money.
Source: Ambito
