The criminal proceedings against the commissioner of the National Migration Institute (INM), Francisco Garduño, for his alleged responsibility in the fire in a migratory station, at the end of March of last year, and that caused the death of 40 migrants and left 27 injured, It has been suspended since the end of 2023 due to an injunction filed by the legal representatives of the victims.
In addition to Garduño, who on Monday went to sign before the federal courts in Ciudad Juárez as a precautionary measure, Another 10 people are subject to criminal proceedings for the fire and its consequences.
At least four criminal cases have also been initiated against them, since they were detained and placed at the disposal of federal judges on different dates, which led to the filing of various cases and crimes, although a single incident with several victims is being tried.
The Foundation for Justice, the Institute for Women in Migration (Imumi) and Comprehensive Human Rights in Action (DHIA) are some of the organizations that accompany and represent survivors.
Blanca Navarrete, coordinator of DHIA, said this Tuesday that they seek to “the different criminal cases are unified because not doing so implies segmenting reality” and it does not allow us to see that what happened at the INM stay was a major violation of human rights.
“The criminal process is on hold due to an injunction filed by the organizations that accompany some of the survivors and some of the families of the deceased because what we seek is for justice to carry out a comprehensive investigation of the facts, and not to segment the case. case as it has done until now,” Navarrete declared.
The representatives of the victims also said that, if this continues, with several criminal cases, “it would wear out the survivors, witnesses, the accused and the organizations themselves” since they would all have to appear at several oral trials.
Manuel Ochoa, Garduño’s lawyer, He told the media that they are waiting for the protection to be resolved and in the meantime his client is complying with the precautionary measures imposed by the judge, and to date has appeared to sign on 17 occasions.
To Garduño and Antonio Molina who was general director of control and verification of the INM Criminal proceedings were initiated against them for the crime of improper exercise of public service.
According to the organizations that represent the victims, Antonio Molina no longer comes to sign for what could be stolen from the criminal process. He was allowed to face the process in freedom, just like Garduño.
At the end of last October the deadlines for the complementary investigation in most criminal cases were going to end, but everything is suspended due to the protection.
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The nine people on whom the precautionary measure of preventive detention was imposed remain in prison. Of them, six are public officials.