Activists blame Mexican authorities for migrants' deaths in deadly fire

Record ID: 1717764

  • Title: Activists blame Mexican authorities for migrants' deaths in deadly fire
  • Date: 29th March 2023
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (MARCH 29, 2023) (REUTERS) ACTIVISTS HOLDING BANNERS AND DEMANDING JUSTICE OUTSIDE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR BUILDING DEMONSTRATOR'S HAND HOLDING SIGN READING (Spanish): “They did not die, they were killed” ACTIVISTS DEMONSTRATING OUTSIDE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR BUILDING DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING SIGN READING (Spanish): “Even though they want to erase you from my mind, you stay in the memory of my womb” VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING SIGNS OUTSIDE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR BUILDING MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS GROUPS AND MIGRANTS ARRIVING OUTSIDE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) LEGAL COORDINATOR AT THE INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN IN MIGRATION, LORENA CANO, SAYING: "Clearly, human dignity and human rights are not what is being proposed to regulate and generate migration policies on, but rather the policy of criminalisation and detention of people at no matter what cost. Yesterday we saw it, the day before yesterday we saw it, in this video that was published. They (eds note: refers to the authorities) rather let them burn and suffocate to death than let them out and that should tell us a lot about what the migration policy in Mexico is, that is the policy of ‘you better die before I let you pass.’” DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING SIGNS DEMONSTRATOR PLACING SIGN ON GROUND SIGN ON GROUND BEING HOLD IN PLACE BY CANDLES AND READING (Spanish): “Those are not shelters, those are prisons” CANDLE BURNING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HEAD OF SUPPORT TO VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS, JULY RODRIGUEZ, SAYING: “We demand that the Mexican government, the Ministry of the Interior, the President of the Republic, pay attention, respond, and take responsibility for what happened, this tragedy that occurred on Monday night, in the early hours of Tuesday morning. This has no name. Enough of persecuting, gunning, extorting, stealing, and violating the rights of migrants. Enough with the murder, enough with the discourse that they are welcome in Mexico when the reality is different. Only in theory and in words (migrants are welcome), but the reality is very opposite to that.” VARIOUS OF SIGNS WITH NAMES OF DEAD MIGRANTS DEMONSTRATORS OUTSIDE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR BUILDING VARIOUS OF MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR ENTRANCE
  • Embargoed: 12th April 2023 23:47
  • Keywords: Ciudad Juarez INM Mexico Mexico City fire migrants migration
  • Location: MEXICO CITY & CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO
  • City: MEXICO CITY & CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,South America / Central America,North America,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001136429032023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Dozens took to the streets of Mexico City on Wednesday (March 29) to demand justice and accountability after the deadly fire at a migrant detention center that killed 39 migrants on Monday night (March 27).
    Rights groups activists and migrants held banners reading “They did not die, they were killed” and shouted slogans such as “Justice” outside of the Ministry of Interior building, located in the capital of the country.
    On Monday, 39 migrants died in the facility in the border city of Ciudad Juarez opposite El Paso, Texas.
    Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador initially said the blaze was started by detained migrants protesting their impending deportation.
    Video footage on social media purportedly showing the fire prompted angry questions about why the mostly Central American migrant men were fatally trapped inside even as authorities said they had safely evacuated all the women from their section.
    The 30-second video, which Mexican Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez said came from the state government, shows uniformed officials walking past a locked cell door while men behind it tried to get out as the room filled with smoke.
    Legal Coordinator at the Institute of Women in Migration, Lorena Cano, who attended the demonstration in the capital city, said the event tells "a lot about what the migration policy in Mexico is."
    Ciudad Juarez' stricken facility belongs to the INM (National Migration Institute), part of the Interior Ministry, and the fire broke out as Mexico struggles to cope with record levels of migrant crossings into the U.S.
    In face of criticism, on Wednesday at a news conference, Lopez Obrador declared that his “government does not allow human rights violations, nor does it allow impunity.”
    An investigation is underway to determine what happened at the center in the northern border city.
    (Production: Raquel Cunha, Alberto Fajardo, Gloria Lopez)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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