At least eight people, including federal agents and a state immigration officer, are believed to be responsible for a deadly fire at a government-run migrant detention center in Mexico that killed 39 men this week, officials said Wednesday night.
Public Safety Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said her office is assisting in the investigation by the country’s prosecutor general into the fire Monday in Ciudad Juárez.
Two federal agents, a state immigration officer and five other people from a private company contracted to provide security are believed to be responsible for the fire, Rodríguez said at a news conference Wednesday evening.
No charges were announced.
Sara Irene Herrerías, an attorney with the prosecutor general’s office who specializes in human rights, said at the news conference that it is requesting at least four arrest warrants, one of them for a migrant.
“None of the public worker or the private security officers took any action to open the door to the migrants who were already inside with the fire,” Herrerías said in Spanish, adding that they could face charges for “intentional homicide.”
The fire, which began Monday night inside the Estancia Provisional de Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas, is one of the deadliest migrant tragedies near the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years. The migrant detention center is run by the National Migration Institute.
Herrerías said migrants bunched up some mattresses in protesting “about some inconveniences.” Some eyewitnesses said a small group of migrants inside the center were upset about possible deportations and set the mattresses on fire, Herrerías said, adding some other witnesses who were seriously injured have not yet been interviewed.
A 30-second video from inside the center posted on Facebook by Equipo De Rescate Cd Juárez, a local group that assists in emergency events, shows the fire as someone behind bars starts kicking the padlock in an attempt to open it. Two guards stand in…
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