The Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAV) sought to ensure that relatives of people killed and people injured in the fire on March 27, 2023 in Ciudad Juárez at the immigration station on the Lerdo-Stanton bridge did not oppose the alternative exit sought by Francisco Garduño Yáñez, National Commissioner of Migration, due to the criminal proceedings against him.
According to the Foundation for Justice and the Democratic Rule of Law (FJEDD), the Commission, in charge of defending some of the indirect and direct victims of the accident, gave them “half-way information” by email, indicating that the federal official “is not directly responsible for the crimes, but that there are other people linked to the process.”
In said message, sent to those represented for the conditional suspension of proceedings hearing on August 12 for criminal case 237/2024 against Garduño Yáñez as the alleged person responsible for the crime of unlawful exercise of public service that led to the fire that left 40 people dead, 27 injured and 15 survivors, it reads: “once this legal advisory firm has realized that you understand and comprehend what has been explained to you and that, based on the information that has been provided, you have expressly stated that you ‘agree with the holding of a conditional suspension hearing’ without opposing it, for which reason your confirmation is requested so that the advisor may state this at the hearing.”
In addition, the organization said, they used legal and technical language that was not intended for the victims and was confusing. It also alleged that at least six victims received calls and emails from the CEAV to induce them not to oppose the alternative solution.
“The CEAV’s main function is to support and advise victims, not to determine who is guilty in an ongoing case. It should not take sides with respect to other defendants, especially when the investigation has not yet concluded,” the Foundation said.
On August 12, 2024, the federal official, who was not removed from office despite being linked to proceedings in April of last year, requested an audience before federal Control Judge Víctor Manlio Hernández Calderón to request that the proceedings against him be terminated with the justification of having already paid for the repair of the damage to the burned property, an immigration station used as a prison for migrants detained on this border, according to the journalistic archive.
For this alternative solution to occur, according to the National Code of Criminal Procedure, there must be no opposition from the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (in charge of investigating the case) or from the victim advisory services (CEAV and the private advisory services offered by the FJEDD).
At the beginning of the hearing, Guadalupe Valdez Flores and Itzel Mireya Sanpedro Durán asked the judge to point out an incident regarding the privacy of the hearing, in the presence of various media outlets.
The judge said there was nothing to discuss in this regard, since the hearings in the aforementioned criminal case had previously been declared public, but the victims’ representatives on behalf of the Federation insisted.
However, before the incident could be raised, the judge declared the request of Garduño Yáñez and his four private lawyers inadmissible, and ended the session without an “alternative solution.”
Following this decision, the foundation noted CEAV’s attempt to make the session private, in order not to oppose the end of the process for the commissioner.
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