Migrants Start Fire At Mexico Detention Center, Killing 40

By/Por María Verza

MEXICO (AP) — Migrants fearing deportation set mattresses ablaze at an immigration detention center in northern Mexico, starting a fire that killed at least 40 people, the president said, in one of the deadliest events ever at a Mexican immigration lockup.

Hours after the fire broke out, rows of bodies were laid out under shimmery silver sheets outside the facility in Ciudad Juarez, which is across from El Paso, Texas, and a major crossing point for migrants. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from the morgue swarmed the scene.

Twenty-nine people were injured and are in “delicate-serious” condition, according to the National Immigration Institute.

At the time of the blaze, 68 men from Central and South America were being held at the facility, the agency said.

Immigration authorities identified the dead and injured as being from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, with Guatemalans being the largest contingent, according to a statement from the Mexican attorney general’s office.

Many of them may have been from Guatemala, according to a Guatemalan official.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the fire was started by migrants in protest after learning they would be deported.

The detention facility is a short walk from the U.S. border and across the street from Juarez’s city hall.

Tensions between authorities and migrants had apparently been running high in recent weeks in Ciudad Juarez, where shelters are full of people waiting for opportunities to cross into the U.S. or who have requested asylum there and are waiting out the process.

More than 30 migrant shelters and other advocacy organizations published an open letter March 9 that complained of a criminalization of migrants and asylum seekers in the city. It accused authorities of abusing migrants and using excessive force in rounding them up, including complaints that municipal police questioned people in the street about their immigration status without cause.

The high level of frustration in Ciudad Juarez was evident earlier this month when hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants tried to force their way across one of the international bridges to El Paso, acting on false rumors that the United States would allow them to enter the country. U.S. authorities blocked their attempts.

Español:

MÉXICO (AP) — Migrantes que temían ser deportados incendiaron colchonetas en un centro de detención migratorio en Ciudad Juárez, en el norte de México, provocando la muerte de 40 personas, dijo el presidente mexicano.

Es uno de los peores incidentes en un centro migratorio en México.

Imágenes del lugar mostraban hileras de cuerpos bajo mantas de emergencia ante el recinto del Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) en Ciudad Juárez, fronteriza con El Paso, Texas. También se veían ambulancias, bomberos y camionetas de la morgue.

El fuego comenzó en una zona de dormitorios donde “estaban alojados 68 hombres mayores de edad originarios de Centro y Sudamérica”, según un comunicado del INM.

Los heridos fueron trasladados “en estado delicado-grave a cuatro hospitales de la localidad para su atención inmediata”.

El presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador dijo que se trató de un incidente desafortunado y agregó que el director del INM ya se encontraba en el lugar de los hechos.

Las autoridades investigaban la causa del incendio y solicitaron a la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, una entidad oficial, que atienda a los migrantes.

Además, empezaron a trabajar con funcionarios consulares de varios países para identificar a los fallecidos.

Los centros de internamiento de inmigrantes han sido escenario de protestas y disturbios ocasionales, sobre todo en momentos de gran flujo migratorio y cuando las instalaciones de detención estaban más llenas. Sin embargo, no se recordaba un incidente tan letal.

Según la web de la ONG Sin Fronteras, que hace un seguimiento a las instalaciones migratorias mexicanas, las de Ciudad Juárez tienen capacidad para 60 personas.

Photo: The Norman Transcript