The government of Mexico On Tuesday, the number of migrants killed in a fire that broke out Monday evening at a detention center in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez adjusted to 38, bordering the United States. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported the death of one of its citizens and the Guatemalan government confirmed the deaths of 28 of its nationals.

The National Institute of Migration (INM) said in a statement that after a tour of the hospitals where the victims had been admitted, “the death count was updated and 38 deaths were confirmed.”

He explained that instead there were one person from Colombia, one from Ecuador, 12 from El Salvador, 28 from Guatemala, 13 from Honduras and 13 from Venezuela.

The INM had reported 39 deaths. It also revealed the nationalities and names of the people who were in the detention center at the time of the incident.

“It was done because it is a tragedy in which, by guaranteeing access to public information, the relatives of the victims will help find out if any of them were on the INM ranch,” he said.

Migrant José Pérez, from Venezuela, reacts during a vigil outside the Mexican immigration facility where at least 38 migrants died in a fire, in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state, on March 28, 2023, Mexico. Photo: — GUILLERMO ARIAS

The incident broke out Monday night at the National Institute of Migration (INM) facilities in this Chihuahua city, occupied by dozens of adult men from Central and South America.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Tuesday that the fire started from a protest by migrants, who set fire to some mattresses.

This Wednesday, López Obrador assured that “there will be no impunity” for the deaths of 38 migrants in the fire.

Video surveillance footage released by the Mexican media shows a group of people, apparently migrants, kicking a gate to open it as fire spreads where they are trapped.

Ciudad Juárez, a neighbor of El Paso, Texas, is one of the border towns where countless migrants seeking to cross the United States for refuge remain stranded.