Ciudad Juarez.- More than 74 civil society organizations (CSOs) and networks of CSOs, as well as 32 individuals, publicly condemned Francisco Garduño Yáñez’s attempt to absolve himself of “responsibility for the fire at the Ciudad Juárez immigration detention center” that occurred on March 27, 2023.
Garduño Yáñez, commissioner of the National Institute of Migration (INM), will seek an alternative solution to his case, which would resolve his alleged participation with the acquitting effects of this conditional suspension of the procedure, which will be reviewed next Monday, August 12, in a federal court.
The signatories recalled that the accused, “unlike the others involved (…) is not being investigated for homicide or injuries, but for illegal exercise of public service, so the classification of the crime for him is more beneficial, when his responsibility should be greater than that of all the defendants in the case.”
For the organizations that support the victims of this incident (in which 40 people died, 27 men were injured and 15 women survived), the investigations are still not concluded, so it is not clear how far his responsibility in the events went, “which is why we maintain that the judge should deny – as he has done before – the ‘alternative solution'” that would practically absolve him so that he would not be investigated or punished any further.
Garduño was brought to trial on April 30, 2023 after a marathon hearing, although only for the crime of illicit exercise of public service.
In September 2023, the commissioner’s private defenders requested the first hearing for conditional suspension of the process through an alternative solution, in which he agreed to pay the difference in the value of the material damage to the property (the type “B” immigration station used as a migrant detention center) resulting from the costs for damages indicated by an expert from the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic, from which was subtracted the amount paid by the building’s insurer.
A supervisory judge ruled against him, stating that full reparation for damages to direct and indirect victims was still pending.
For the signatory organizations, the National Commissioner for Migration “has been characterized by his lack of accountability, as demonstrated by the 30 calls and points of agreement that the Legislative Branch has made for him to appear, which he has ignored.”
The entities that signed the document include the Latin American Migration Block, the Juarez-based organizations Paso del Norte Human Rights Center, Comprehensive Human Rights in Action, and academic and legislative working groups.
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