Mexican president vows no cover-up in investigation of fire that killed 38 migrants

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has vowed that his government will thoroughly investigate a fire that killed at least 38 migrants at a detention center in this border city.

Security video circulating on social media appeared to show staffers making no effort to help desperate detainees who remained locked behind bars Monday night as smoke billowed and flames spread. One detainee kicks the bars in an apparent attempt to force the door open.

“There is no intention to cover up what happened, no intention to protect anyone,” López Obrador told reporters Wednesday at his daily news conference in Mexico City. “In our government we don’t permit violation of human rights or impunity.”

The president also assured people in the homelands of those who died that the case would be investigated “to find out what really happened.”

News of the fire set off panic in communities across Latin America as relatives of U.S.-bound migrants rushed to check on them.

Mexican authorities have added to the confusion by reporting the names of the dead and the injured without specifying who fell into which group. An original list, released late Tuesday, included 68 migrants, but an updated list held 66. All were men: 28 from Guatemala, 12 from Venezuela, 13 from Honduras, 12 from El Salvador one from Colombia.

Of the victims who are hospitalized, 17 remained in critical condition, nine were listed as “delicate” and two as stable, authorities said.

On Tuesday, the president said the fire began after migrants learned that they were going to be deported to their home countries — and ignited mattresses in protest.

But migrants and activists here say they want more details about the cause and demanded to know why authorities at the lockup were unable to douse the flames or free prisoners trapped behind bars.

It is also unclear whether the facility had a functioning fire alarm or sprinkler system.

“We’re all very frustrated, we don’t know what happened to our friends — who lived, who died,” said Paola Aliendres, 29, a mother of two from Venezuela who was among dozens of migrants who gathered outside the charred facility here late Tuesday to protest the government’s handling of the case. “It seems like they want to blame us for everything.”

The Mexican foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said Tuesday that the culprits behind the fire had been identified and would be “presented” to the federal attorney general’s office. He provided no details as to their identities.

Even before the fire, tensions over immigration were running high in Ciudad Juárez, a bustling manufacturing hub across the Rio Grande from El Paso

Tens of thousands of migrants from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean have been stranded here and in other Mexican border towns and cities in recent years as the U.S. government has pressured Mexico to help stop them from crossing into the United States.

It was not publicly known whether any of the dead or injured had been turned back by U.S. authorities under Title 42, a public health law invoked during the pandemic to expel tens of thousands of unauthorized border crossers back to Mexico in recent years while denying them a chance to apply for political asylum or other potential relief in the United States.

Migrants here accuse Mexican officials of harassing or needlessly arresting them, sometimes raiding hotels and hostels or detaining them on the streets, where many sell trinkets, food and other items. Migrants not only face deportation, they said, but are often bused south — sometimes to Mexico’s border with Guatemala, almost 2,000 miles away — in a bid to frustrate their efforts to enter the United States.

“They just come and take us away for no reason,” said Aliendres, the Venezuelan mother. “We are just trying to make a living and survive and hopefully one day fulfill our dream to get to the United States.”

The migrant detention center, situated about 100 yards from the Rio Grande separating Mexico and the United States, is one of many across the country run by the Mexican government’s National Immigration Institute. Both federal staff and private contractors work at the center.

Migrants have long complained about mistreatment and overcrowding at the federal lockups.

Monday’s fire was believed to be the deadliest incident to date at any of the facilities, which are meant for short-term detention of migrants lacking legal status.

It was the latest in a series of tragedies that have cost the lives of hundreds of migrants in recent years.

In June, 53 people from Mexico and Central America perished in a sweltering tractor trailer abandoned in San Antonio.

In December 2021, 55 migrants, mostly Guatemalans, were killed when the truck ferrying them in southern Mexico’s southern Chiapas state crashed.

In 2010, authorities said, members of a Mexican drug cartel kidnapped and killed 72 migrants, mostly Central Americans, in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Officials say the migrants were killed after refusing to work for the criminal gang.

Special correspondents Gabriela Minjares in Ciudad Juárez and Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City contributed to this report.