MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Five people have been arrested for their alleged roles in the deaths of 39 people at a Mexican migrant detention center earlier this week after a fire broke out, authorities said Thursday.
Six warrants were issued against three immigration institute officers, two private security officers and the person who allegedly began the fire, Sara Irene Herrerias, the head of the attorney general office’s human rights unit, said without clarifying which arrest was pending.
A private security company, Grupo de Seguridad Privada CAMSA SA de CV, was responsible for handling security matters at the center in the northern border city of Juarez, said Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez.
A number of irregularities were found when authorities began looking into the company on Wednesday, Rodriguez said, adding that the government asked Mexico’s immigration institute to withdraw its contract with the company.
Rodriguez had said Wednesday that prosecutors were investigating eight people who could be involved in the incident, including federal and state agents.
Video of the alleged incident, which Mexico’s interior minister has made reference to, shows men kicking on the bars of a locked cell as it filled with smoke and several people in uniform walking past without attempting to open the door.
Authorities have said they believe the fire, which killed male immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and Colombia, was started by migrants setting mattresses on fire as a form of protest.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle)
