Colombian migrant tells Mexican government: ‘I am a victim, not a witness’

Mexico Cityprocess) – More than a year after the fire at the immigration facility in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Kelly, a Colombian national who witnessed the tragedy, still cannot forget the screams of the dozens of men detained at the detention center or the response of officials of the National Migration Institute (INM) to the request.

“Let them burn!”, “Let them burn!”, “It’s all their fault!”, “They asked for it!” These prisoners and the 15 immigrant women who were about to be rescued all called for help. Kelly said in a remote interview that they suffered the same fate as these people.

“There was never the slightest intention to save them. Although we asked them to help, they told us that we had asked for it and we begged them to call the firefighters. They just took us to one side like a cage and kept us there for the whole morning. They left us in the open, crying, looking at the smoke and screaming for them to do something,” recalls the young Colombian, who has had trouble sleeping since March 27, 2023. As he falls asleep, he has nightmares of the Dantesque scenes he has witnessed.

Kelly Ospina Gonzalez and process Days after the tragedy in Ciudad Juárez, which left 40 migrants dead and 27 others permanently injured, she requested asylum with her two cousins, Carolina and Jenny, who had accompanied her from her hometown of Medellín.

According to the facts, a total of 11 people are linked to the process, of whom seven are in preventive detention, two of whom are accused of arson; two have absconded, one of whom is the head of immigration residence, Antonio Molina, and the other is a private security guard; and two others are carrying out their process at will, including Francisco Garduño Yáñez, director of the National Migration Institute (INM).

Physical and psychological effects

Since that fatal night of March 27, 2023, Kelly and her cousins ​​have suffered from chronic depression, sleeping problems, an inability to socialize, and deteriorating health as they inhaled smoke from the fires, which caused nosebleeds and coughing, for weeks without their medical assistance.

“I cry every day. I don’t understand why they wasted so much time when they could have gotten them out alive. I have never seen such cruelty in my life. This suffering could have been avoided, but they did nothing.

“From one moment to the next, firefighters, police, military started arriving. I don’t know if they called them, I don’t know how they got there, but believe me, if it was because of the people who were guarding us, nothing like this would have happened. There was nothing to do. They started taking the bodies out and laying them out in front of us. We have had to endure all the pain and suffering and images up to this point,” Kelly said, wiping away tears.

After months of reflection, the Colombian citizens decided to seek legal aid when they began receiving messages from the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) asking them to appear in court for hearings in five criminal cases that had already been heard.

However, the hearing was suspended because of seven appeals filed by organizations representing surviving victims and relatives of the deceased because they were not adequately represented and were unhappy with the INM chief’s proposal to compensate only for the rehabilitation of those affected by the property, despite his responsibility for guaranteeing the safety of detained immigrants.

“To come out a year later! … It seemed unbelievable to us, they made us witnesses instead of victims, which didn’t seem fair because our lives would never be the same again. Even though we had no contact with the other girls, we believed they were also affected because many of them came with their families,” Kelly explained.

She insists that knowing that they could also be on the list of the dead had an impact on them because on March 27, they were locked up in a space with other women, some of them for weeks in rooms without good hygiene or health conditions. Suddenly they began to hear INM officers shouting to their colleagues, “Get out because there is a fire here,” because the toilet was blocked, and they were locked up.

“We had no idea what was happening. Everything started filling up with smoke very quickly. The only thing I told my cousins ​​was that if anything happened, the only thing left for us was to wet our shirts and hide under those huts because if there was smoke, that would be the first thing that would kill us.

“The other girls started yelling, ‘Save us, don’t leave us here!’ and that’s when the people guarding us turned around and opened our door. But we realized they had no intention of letting us out of there,” said Kelly, who remembers being forced into a line, treated like criminals and warned not to try to escape.

After that terrible night, they were exposed to the smoke from the fire, exposed to the cold, with no consideration, “no one asked us how we felt, no one gave us a medical examination.”

At three o’clock in the morning of March 28, officials from the Leona Vicario Migrant Integration Center arrived to pick up the 15 women, and officials from the FGR also arrived at the center to take their statements about what had happened. Meanwhile, the INM offered them humanitarian visas to stay in Mexico, an offer the Colombians rejected and decided to surrender to the US authorities and ask for asylum.

Detained without reason

The horror suffered was the culmination of a difficult day, as his own arrest was irregular and without explanation.

Kelly and her cousins ​​arrived north of the border from Cancun a few days after vacationing in the Riviera Maya.

“We wanted to reach the United States and there was no doubt that we were seeking political asylum, but the way they detained us in Ciudad Juarez was extremely illegal. We never knew why they detained us inside the airport, which was strange because if there was any problem with our documents, they would not have allowed us to take that flight,” he warned.

More than a year after the tragedy, Kelly realised that fear was paralysing her and her cousins. They tried to forget what happened while in the US, but the memories kept tormenting them, which is why they decided to seek legal help and support.

“How can we remain silent out of fear, out of fear that this will continue to happen. I don’t know what will happen, but 40 people died and we almost died.

“This is a message that cannot be forgotten. We want to make sure this kind of behavior does not go unpunished. These detention centers should never exist. “There is more human dignity and everyone’s rights are respected regardless of nationality,” Kelly said, insisting that she, her cousins ​​and 12 other girls be allowed to stay and be identified as victims.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, I don’t know if there’s going to be compensation, but do what needs to be done. And beyond that, don’t let these people be forgotten about in the news that’s going on every day,” Kelly said.

Since May last year, Kelly and her cousins ​​have been advised by a group of organisations that advocate for victims and relatives of the deceased, including Integrated Human Rights Action (DHIA), the Foundation for Justice and the Rule of Law and Democracy (FJEDD) and the Immigrant Women’s Institute (Imumi).

Legal developments

FJEDD lawyer Marcos Zavala explained that for now they have sought to suspend criminal proceedings until the rights of all victims are guaranteed.

In the specific case of the Colombian girls, he said in an interview, “We are asking them to undergo a medical and psychological study, at least a psychological study, because of the impact they had on them, because they were present and witnessed the events of March 27.”

Zavala noted that civil organizations have asked the National Supreme Court (SCJN) to appeal two review appeals filed by these organizations, asking for protection against INM head and ranch chief Antonio Molina.

“We have shown that the Executive Committee for Concern for Victims (CEAV) does not even show up to the victims, does not offer them assistance measures, that is, is completely unrepresented in all senses of the word, legally, psychologically, medically, as far as the CEAV is concerned, and that is why we ask the SCJN to exert its appeal and examine all victims for these widespread effects, even though we do not represent all of them,” he pointed out.

Benefits for INM holders

Regarding the complaint against Commissioner Garduño, who is currently on trial at liberty on charges of illegal exercise of public office, Marcos Zavala said he recently requested a new benefit “to avoid facing this procedure, the so-called conditional suspension”, with a hearing scheduled for August 12.

The lawyer recalled that the head of INM had applied for such benefits in September 2023; “In that restoration program, I just wanted to repair the property,” a statement that was questioned by some victims.

“We ask not only that all the victims be taken into account, including 15 women, but that all those involved be prosecuted and tried like everyone else and that benefits such as those requested by the Commissioner be not granted, because we do not know if he will propose compensation for the victims, let alone for the women victims, if last time he did not take into account the real victims who died and 27 injured, which led to this situation. Marcos Zavala noted that this is the worst event in terms of human loss in the history of Mexico.