(CNN Spanish) – The bodies of seven Salvadoran immigrants killed in a fire at an immigration center in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, arrived in El Salvador on Sunday, that country’s foreign ministry said.
The coffins arrived by caravan and by road from Ciudad Juárez, a border town in northern Mexico. The Salvadoran authorities stated that the bodies had been handed over to the families of the victims so that they could bury them.
The Government of El Salvador reported that it provided counseling and assistance to relatives of victims from the provinces of Ahuachapan, Sonsonate, La Libertad, San Salvador, Chalatenango and Morazán.
“I have closely followed this difficult process with the families, accompanying them and offering them our full support. Just as they are going through this moment of pain, I also know that our country has been affected by this sad and damning event,” said Cindy Portal. Deputy Minister of Diaspora and Human Mobility, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador.
The State Department reports that it is also following up on five Salvadorans who were infected and are still staying in various hospitals in Ciudad Juarez.
Due to the fire at the immigration station in the border city with the United States, which was recorded on the night of March 27, 40 people died and 27 were injured.
El Salvador considers that what happened in the facilities of the National Institute of Migration in Mexico was a state crime and has demanded that the perpetrator be found guilty.
According to the Mexican government, pretrial detention orders have already been issued against six people in the case: three immigration agents, two from a private security company that runs the center, and an immigrant accused of starting the fire. The prosecutor’s office is conducting an investigation.
After the fire, the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said in his morning press conference that immigrants had caused the fire. According to the chief, they were upset that they were leaving.
“This had something to do with the protest they started from, we suppose, when they found out they were going to be deported and mobilized, and as a protest at the door of the shelter they put mattresses from the shelter, set them up and shot them not imagining that this would cause this terrible ordeal,” López Obrador said.
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