Mexico City, April 10 (EFE).- The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, confirmed this Monday that the authorities of El Salvador are “right” in demanding the resignation of officials of the National Institute of Migration (INM). In the northern state of Chihuahua, Ciudad Juarez, 40 people died during the migrants’ stay.
“The authorities of El Salvador are right, as well as the authorities of Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela. It is very sad what happened. They have to protect the lives of their fellow citizens, this is the government’s job,” the president said at the morning press conference.
López Obrador made these statements after the Minister of Diaspora and Human Mobility of El Salvador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cindy Portal, said that the government of the Central American country is demanding the resignation of those responsible for Mexico’s migration policy after the deaths of 7 Salvadorans. In the fire that broke out on March 27.
Similarly, Mexico’s president said his administration was in communication with other governments for “assistance” and reiterated that “there will be no impunity” in the case.
“Those responsible will be punished. “The investigation will continue, people have already been arrested and the investigative process to punish the perpetrators of this tragedy has not yet been completed,” he said.
On the night of March 27, 40 migrants, including 6 Hondurans, 7 Salvadorans, 18 Guatemalans, 7 Venezuelans and one Colombian, died as a result of a fire at the center of the National Migration Institute on the Mexico-US border. The Salvadoran government described it as a “state crime”.
In addition to the dead, 27 were injured as a result of the accident, 23 of them remain in the hospital and only 4 have been discharged so far. There were about 70 migrants at the immigration station, whom Mexico was planning to deport.
The Mexican government announced over the weekend that it will begin repatriating the bodies of the dead.
According to Mexican civil society organizations, 2022 was the most tragic year for migrants in Mexico, as about 900 died trying to cross the country to the United States without documents.
The region is experiencing record migration flows, with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants apprehended at the US-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022.
Source: El Diario
