Mexico has already begun an investigation into the “murder” and has identified eight people allegedly responsible for the deaths of 39 migrants at a federal detention center in Ciudad Juarez, on Mexico’s border with the United States, Mexican authorities announced Wednesday.

“None of the government officials and none of the private security guards made the slightest move to open the door to the migrants inside while it was burning,” human rights prosecutor Sara Irene Herrerias Guerra said at a press conference the day after the tragedy.

The serial “murder” and “infliction of grievous bodily harm” are under investigation, the prosecutor added, not ruling out the possibility of other crimes.

Public Security Minister Rosa Isela Rodríguez added that eight people have been identified who are believed to be criminally responsible.

These are three employees of the National Institute for Migration (INM) and five employees of a private security company, Ms. Rodriguez explained.

Judges were asked to issue at least four arrest warrants by Wednesday, the prosecutor said.

She confirmed that the 32-second video received by the media is genuine. “This video is part of the evidence,” he said.

The CCTV images were recorded on the night of Monday to Tuesday. Behind the bars while thick smoke rises a man tries to kick the locked door of his cell.

In the foreground, on the other side of the hall, there are three guards, two in uniform, they turn their backs on him without offering him any help.

Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador assured that the tragedy at the migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez will not go unpunished.

“We will not hide anything and there will be no impunity,” Mr. Lopez Obrador said.

Initially, the Mexican President estimated that the immigrants set fire to the mattresses in “protest”. “We assume they found out they were going to be deported, relocated,” he said on Tuesday, hours after the unprecedented tragedy at an immigration detention center in Mexico.

All victims were male. The women at the center were safely evacuated, and the Mexican government is demanding answers.

“Why didn’t they bring these people out? It is clear that a very serious crime has been committed,” said Minister of Public Security Rodriguez. “They couldn’t open the door?” he asked, adding that it was not clear what the emergency protocols were and if the guards were trained to deal with such situations. After watching the video, “it looks like they had no preparation,” he added.

It is not clear how much time passed from the time the fire broke out to the time the doors were opened after the arrival of the fire department and paramedics.

Source: RES-IPE