Prosecutors introduced proof that Francisco Garduño, the pinnacle of the Mexican Immigration Institute, was accountable for the security of nation’s immigration amenities and may have closed people who didn’t meet security necessities.
A decide denied prosecutors’ request that Garduño be faraway from his place and be barred from leaving the nation. His subsequent listening to was scheduled for Sunday.
A migrant allegedly began a fireplace contained in the Ciudad Juarez detention middle March 27. Safety cameras inside the ability confirmed smoke shortly filling the cell holding 68 male migrants, however nobody with keys making an attempt to launch them. The feeds for these cameras have been streamed to a monitoring middle in Mexico Metropolis.
Along with the 40 killed, greater than two dozen have been injured within the fireplace.
Garduño has not stepped down from his put up, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has voiced his assist. The president appointed Garduño to run the company in 2019 whereas underneath stress from then U.S. President Donald Trump to take a extra aggressive stance towards migrants crossing Mexico.
Garduño had beforehand been in control of Mexico’s prisons.
Prosecutors additionally spoke of nefarious dealings inside the ability and a few migrants of their statements recounted how that they had been advised they’d be freed in the event that they paid $1,000.
Thus far, the very best rating official headed to trial is the immigration company’s delegate within the state of Chihuahua, retired Navy Rear Adm. Salvador González. He was charged with murder and inflicting harm by omission amongst different costs.
Prosecutors had beforehand mentioned that they recognized “a sample of irresponsibility and repeated omissions” within the immigration institute.
A decide was anticipated to resolve later Tuesday whether or not considered one of Garduño’s lieutenants would go to trial.
The turmoil in Mexico’s immigration company comes at a time when a number of thousand migrants are strolling north from close to the Guatemalan border in protest of the lethal fireplace and calling for Mexico to shut its detention facilities.
Seven of the migrants and activists accompanying them on Tuesday sewed their lips shut in protest over the shortage of a authorities response to their request for dialogue.
The migrants walked to the city of Huixtla, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Tapachula the place they began their stroll Sunday.
They’re asking authorities to offer them with buses – there are a lot of households with younger youngsters amongst them – or at the very least with non permanent paperwork that will give them free transit by way of the nation. Thus far, authorities haven’t made any try and cease them.
Irineo Mujica, of the migrant advocacy group Folks with out Borders, was a type of who sewed his mouth shut. “It hurts somewhat, however the injustice towards the immigrant neighborhood hurts extra,” he mentioned. “None of these right here wish to be loss of life quantity 41.”
It additionally performs out simply weeks earlier than america authorities is predicted to finish the pandemic-era restrictions on asylum on the border and implement new measures that authorities hope will deter a brand new rush to the border.
AP author Edgar H. Clemente in Huixtla, Mexico contributed to this report.
