Jason Daniel (right) with his friend Oscar who died in the immigration fire.This photo was sent to a friend of his when he was detained by an INM agent during a highway cruise.Courtesy
Mexican authorities confirmed Friday the arrest of a migrant who was responsible for a fire that killed 39 people at an illegal immigrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez on the border with the United States.
So far, the Attorney General’s Office has announced the arrests of five people allegedly responsible for last Monday night’s tragedy, though it has not been specified whether the immigrant was one of them.
On Thursday, a judge ordered the arrest of six suspects. Three National Institute of Migration (INM) officials, two private security guards, and immigrants accused of murder and injury.
At a press conference, human rights prosecutor Sarah Eileen Hererias said no arrests had yet been made for the private security guards.
Herrerias did not disclose the nationality or name of the immigrant who allegedly set fire to the mattress in the cell in which he was staying with 67 other men during a protest against possible deportation.
Local media have confirmed that a 28-year-old Venezuelan citizen identified as Jason Daniel Catari Rivas has also been issued a warrant for his arrest.
Arrest warrant for Venezuela’s Jason Daniel Katari Rivas
“In the case of immigration, after a request was made by the consulate (of the country of origin) and an arrest warrant was issued, (the arrest) was carried out with the consulate’s attention,” the prosecutor said.
The event killed 18 Guatemalans, 7 Salvadorans, 7 Venezuelans, 6 Hondurans and 1 Colombian. Another 28 people were injured, four of whom have already been discharged.
The immigration office has been closed, Security Director Rosa Isela Rodriguez announced at the same conference.
“We are not criminals.”
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has ensured the case will not be acquitted, visited Ciudad Juárez this Friday to check on the medical care of the survivors.
Ciudad Juárez General Hospital reported on Friday that 11 of the injured were hospitalized.
The man reportedly had four fingers amputated from one hand.
Immigrants carry Venezuelan flags outside the INM immigration office in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.AFP
Lopez Obrador held a rally at a school in the city next door to El Paso, Texas. Fifty immigrants demonstrated in front of the building, accusing them of being criminalized for seeking a better future in the United States.
“We are not criminals. We fled the country as a result of bad policies,” shouted a man with a microphone.
The chief of security has promised to investigate complaints of human rights abuses by INM officials.
In parallel, TV media showed dozens of migrants walking along a highway in southern Chiapas this Friday after fleeing a detention center in the city of Beriozabal.
“We just want to get to our destination. Here people treated us like dogs. They treated us like prisons.” The woman told Millenio Chain.
Billing to the United States
Earlier, at his usual press conference, Lopez Obrador renewed his call for the United States to allocate more resources to prevent irregular migration in poorer regions of Latin America.
The president said Washington’s investments in Central America paled in comparison to the billions of dollars Ukraine had earmarked for military aid to face a Russian aggression.
In the United States, “there is a desire to deal with social problems only through the use of force, and the causes have not been resolved,” but “we will continue to advocate,” said the left-leaning president.
The president recalled that Mexico has allocated $100 million for social programs in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, which he said has helped deter many young people from leaving their communities.
However, he acknowledged that the temporary visa program adopted by Biden has helped reduce the flow of immigrants “significantly”, arguing that they should be delivered directly rather than through NGOs, arguing that people’s He even accused them of trafficking people out of necessity.
Lopez Obrador also announced a “reform” of the INM, which manages migrant detention centers.
Source: Diario.Elmundo
