By Omar Silva, NP Staff Writer

Belize City, Wednesday, 12 April 2023

The head of Mexico's National Migration Institute will face criminal charges for a fire that killed 40 migrants in a locked cell, the Attorney General's Office said on Tuesday night. The agency said in a statement that the immigration agency chief, Francisco Garduño, was criminally negligent in not preventing the fire, despite previous incidents showing that the situation in the country's migrant detention centers needed to be corrected. Several other agency officials will also face charges for failing to fulfill their duties, the statement said, but prosecutors did not explain the specific charges or identify the officials.

The prosecutors said the case showed a "pattern of irresponsibility," their statement released just hours after Mexico's president said two guards who fled when the fire broke out did not have the keys to the cell door. The immigration agency's press office, which is led by Garduño, immediately responded to messages and phone calls seeking comment.

The prosecutors said that after a fire at another detention center in the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco killed one person and injured 14 in 2020, the immigration agency knew there were problems that needed to be corrected, but claimed they did not act. There have long been complaints about corruption and poor conditions in Mexico's migrant detention centers.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's comments about the guards in last month's fire in Ciudad Juarez came on the same day that the bodies of 17 Guatemalan and six Honduran migrants killed in the fire were returned to their home countries. It was unclear what effect Lopez Obrador's comments could have on the guards' trial, who were previously arrested for the fire that shocked the country.

"The door was closed, because the person who had the keys was not there," Lopez Obrador said. A security camera video inside the facility shows the guards rushing away as the smoke fills the facility and they do not appear to make any effort to free the migrants.

Three Mexican immigration officials, a guard, and a Venezuelan migrant are detained for investigation in connection with the fire. They face homicide charges. The migrant allegedly set fire to foam mattresses in the detention center to protest what he apparently thought were plans to move or deport the migrants.

In Guatemala City, relatives of the victims gathered at an air force base with flowers and photos of the deceased to mark their return. "My son, my love," could be heard a female voice shouting, amidst the sobs of those present as the coffins were unloaded and lined up, and relatives could approach them. Mexican military planes transported the bodies of six migrants to Honduras and 17 to Guatemala. Authorities say 19 of the 40 dead were from Guatemala, but two bodies were still being confirmed for identification. Another 11 Guatemalans were injured in the fire.

Guatemalan Foreign Minister Mario Búcaro accompanied the bodies, which would be transported by land to their hometowns in nine different provinces. Some bodies of Salvadoran migrants were returned to El Salvador last week. So far, 31 bodies have been sent back to their home countries.