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MEXICO CITY — Mexican officers mentioned on Thursday that they’d arrested 5 individuals for his or her function within the hearth in a Ciudad Juárez migrant detention middle that killed no less than 39 individuals.
The authorities didn’t title the suspects who had been apprehended, however mentioned arrest warrants had been obtained for 3 authorities migration officers, two non-public safety employees and a migrant accused of beginning the blaze. The sixth individual charged had not but been taken into custody.
Officers mentioned on Wednesday they have been investigating the fireplace as a murder case, saying that a few of these accountable, together with federal and state brokers, had failed to permit the migrants to flee. They didn’t disclose the fees towards these accused within the case.
The hearth broke out Monday night time, when a gaggle of detained migrants set mattresses ablaze as a result of they feared they have been going to be deported, Mexican officers mentioned.
Some migrants informed officers in interviews that they’d not been given water whereas they have been being held, in accordance with Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra, a prime federal human rights prosecutor.
A video that emerged this week appeared to point out that when the blaze began, uniformed individuals on the detention middle walked away and left a number of males behind bars as smoke crammed the world the place they have been being held.
“Not one of the public servants, nor the non-public safety guards, took any motion to open the door for the migrants who have been inside the place the fireplace was,” Ms. Herrerías Guerra mentioned.
Beside the 39 deaths, 27 individuals stay hospitalized. Among the many lifeless have been 18 Guatemalans, six Hondurans, seven Salvadorans, seven Venezuelans and one Colombian.
“Our authorities’s precedence is to respect the human rights of all individuals, no matter their immigration standing,” mentioned Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez, the federal government’s secretary of safety, on Thursday.
The deaths come after weeks of escalating tensions in Ciudad Juárez over migrants there hoping to cross into El Paso, Texas, simply throughout the U.S.-Mexico border. The mayor of Ciudad Juárez had just lately vowed a harder method to migrants whom he mentioned “might have an effect on town’s financial system and 1000’s of Juárez and El Paso residents.”
The migrants taken to the middle earlier than the fireplace on Monday have been detained after native residents complained about individuals begging for cash on the streets, mentioned Ms. Rodríguez Velázquez.
“There have been a number of complaints from neighbors {that a} group of migrants” was “harassing individuals,” she mentioned, including that the authorities then determined to hold out an operation to apprehend migrants and convey them to the middle.
Ms. Rodríguez Velázquez mentioned the federal government had discovered irregularities inside an organization that was offering safety on the facility, Grupo de Seguridad Privada CAMSA, and that its contract with the migration authorities could be terminated.
“All investigations are underway to seek out out what actually occurred,” mentioned Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in a information convention this week, including that these accountable could be “punished in accordance with the legislation.”
The U.S. authorities mentioned it was keen to assist Mexico in its investigation into the reason for the fireplace.
“We stand prepared to supply any help,” mentioned Vedant Patel, a State Division spokesman, at a briefing on Tuesday, including: “This tragedy is a heartbreaking reminder of the dangers migrants and refugees around the globe face.”
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