Three guards see how the fire starts and do nothing. Two of them leave and the last one walks around the room before disappearing. In a matter of seconds, the smoke covers everything and the flames devour the room. It is the death sentence of the 38 dead migrants locked up in a migration center in Mexico itself.

They are the new images that the own National Institute of Migration of Mexico and show how the fire broke out and the authorities did absolutely nothing. The tragic balance: 38 dead and 28 more were injured and hospitalized.

The families of the dead and wounded do not explain it to them: “And if they see that they are burning, why don’t they open the gate?“This is the most heard lament among the dozens of migrants trying to reach the US from Central and South America. Those affected have protested outside the center that became the tomb of the theirs. To the cry of “justice, justice” they demand explanations. They are indignant with the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obradorand his controversial statements, in which he blamed the dead for his fate: “This had to do with a protest that they started.”

NGOs in defense of human rights see it as inadmissible to blame migrants. They focus on the inhuman immigration control system agreed upon by Mexico and the US. Olatz Chubresponsible for the work on America in International Amnesty Spain maintains that “detention centers do not meet any type of standards.” “They are overcrowded. There is not enough access to food, to water,” she denounces.

In 2022, the Mexican authorities imprisoned at least 318,000 people and they expelled more than 106,000among which there were numerous minors.

Those killed in the tragedy came from six countries, mainly Guatemala and Venezuela. One of the migrants who have avoided the tragedy affirms that “the jungle is better.” “Hell has been the Mexican migration,” he says.

Candles and flowers make up a makeshift altar in memory of the 38 men who died. A misfortune that perhaps could have been avoided if they had opened the barred door of the migrant center.