A tragedy at the end of March opened the door to the migration crisis in Mexico: a fire at a post at the National Institute of Migration (INM) in Ciudad Juárez, on the border with the United States, left 40 dead and dozens injured.
Among the victims were Colombian, Ecuadorian, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Honduran and Venezuelan immigrants.
The repercussions of this tragedy reached the office of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) last week. The Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation against the director of the INM, Francisco Garduño Yáñez, and other employees of the institute.
The prosecution explained that other records already indicated failures in the work of the immigration body, such as an incident in March 2020 at another immigrant center, in Tenosique, in the state of Tabasco, which resulted in the death of one person and 14 injuries.
“Opinions from the Superior Audit of the Federation in recent years again point out, with total clarity, the faults and omissions that continue to be committed at INM; and indicate a pattern of irresponsibility and omissions that has been repeated and that has been the cause of these unfortunate events already mentioned”, justified the prosecution.
As the tragedy of Ciudad Juárez gained repercussions, AMLO changed his tone when talking about the case. In the first hours after the fire, he blamed the migrants themselves, saying their protest sparked the fire.
After the government of El Salvador called for the INM director to leave and demonstrations by authorities from other countries where the migrants killed in the fire came from, the Mexican president adopted a more conciliatory tone.
“The authorities in El Salvador are right, as are those in Guatemala, Colombia and Venezuela. It’s very regrettable. They have to protect the lives of their fellow citizens. That’s the government’s job, but we’re reaching out to them to help. And also, as I said on the first day, there will be no impunity, those responsible will be punished, the investigation will continue, there are already detainees. And the investigation has not yet been completed to punish those responsible for this tragedy,” said AMLO.
Last week, when the Attorney General’s investigation was announced, the president again affirmed that there will be no impunity, although Garduño Yáñez remains in office.
“Our criterion, which I have established as conduct, is not to protect anyone if there is a possibility that they have committed an irregularity or a crime. I don’t protect anyone,” he claimed.
Record flow from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua
According to Mexican civil organizations, 2022 was the most tragic year for immigrants in Mexico, as about 900 died trying to cross the border between the country and the United States without documents.
The region experienced a record migratory flow last year, with 2.76 million illegal immigrants detained at the US-Mexico border in fiscal 2022 (October 2021 to September last year).
According to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) of the United Nations, Mexico has increasingly become a transit center for migrants and less a country from which the population emigrates.
The total number of Mexican migrants in other countries decreased from 12.42 million in 2010 to 11.19 million in 2020 (97% of these are in the United States). On the other hand, in 20 years, the immigrant population in Mexican territory has increased by 123%.
The economic, political and humanitarian crises in Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua generated a great growth in the arrival of migrants (interested in going to the United States) to Mexico last year.
The number of arrests of migrants in transit through Mexican territory was a record, with 444,439 arrests, an increase of 44% over 2021. The IOM highlighted in a statement “unprecedented levels of migrants arriving by land in Mexico through Central America, from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, or even from countries in Africa, Asia and Europe (including Russia and Ukraine)”.
Venezuelans represented the predominant nationality among the arrests carried out last year by the Mexican immigration authorities, with 97,078 arrests, an increase of 2,127% compared to the previous year.
In an article for the website Animal Político, the Documentation Network of Organizations for the Defense of Migrants in Mexico (Redodem) pointed out that, given this increase in the flow of migrants, public policies for this population need to change.
The organization highlighted that the centers for immigrants and temporary stays in Mexico violate the human rights of migrants and pose a risk to their safety, life and integrity, as evidenced by the tragedy in Ciudad Juárez.
“It is urgent that the ten migration posts be inspected by civil society and public human rights bodies and that those that represent a latent risk be closed, to avoid a new tragedy. The State has an obligation to ensure that the rights of migrants are respected and to guarantee their safety and integrity at all times”, maintained Redodem. (With EFE Agency)
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