Former director of the Chihuahua INM is linked to the process for the death of 40 migrants in a fire

Salvador Gonzalez Guerrerowho directed the National Institute of Migration (INM) in the state of Chihuahua, was accused this Saturday of homicide for the death of 40 migrants during a fire in a detention center in Juarez City, the night of March 27.

González, arrested on April 16 in Ciudad Juárez, was charged before the judge with homicide, injuries and the illegal exercise of public service, according to the Federal Judicial Council (CJF).

The magistrate ordered that the official remain in pretrial detention.

According to the authorities, the fire originated when a migrant set fire to a mattress in the cell where he was staying with 67 other men, in the middle of a protest against a possible deportation.

Images from a security camera showed that once the fire broke out, neither immigration nor security personnel did anything to evacuate the migrants.

A total of 39 migrants died at the scene, most from suffocation, and one more at a hospital.

Others four INM officials have been arresteda security guard and the migrant identified as the one who started the fire.

The commissioner and highest authority of the INM, Francisco Garduno, has also been singled out in the prosecution’s investigation, but remains at large. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that he will continue in office while his probable responsibility for the events is determined.

Garduño will appear next Tuesday before a judge to respond to the accusations of the prosecution.

In total, 19 Guatemalans, seven Salvadorans, seven Venezuelans, six Hondurans and one Colombian lost their lives while waiting in Ciudad Juárez for the possibility of crossing into the United States.

Most of the bodies have already been repatriated.