Ciudad Juarez tragedy: Mexican president urges the United States to take responsibility

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Ciudad Juarez, March 31, 2023. REUTERS - JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Three days after the fire that killed 39 migrants at a detention center in Ciudad Juarez, a city on the US border, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has again called on the United States to change its policy on migrants, saying it does not address the root of the problem.

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While the investigation progresses and eleven migrants are still hospitalized in serious condition, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador traveled Friday to Ciudad Juarez. Mexican authorities announced Friday the arrest of a Venezuelan migrant according to local media, who would be responsible for starting the fire that killed 39 people last Tuesday in a detention center in this city located on the border with the United States. Until now, the Attorney General's Office had announced the arrest of five people in the investigation opened for "homicide", without specifying whether this migrant was one of these people. According to the prosecutor's office, the centre's security staff did nothing to open the cell.

« Taking care of cases »

The Mexican president did not hesitate to attack the American authorities, indirectly responsible for the situation according to him. According to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, social programs must be funded in the countries from which the majority of these migrants come to reduce the flow of migrants. The Americans want to solve "social problems with the use of force alone and they do not deal with the causes," the Mexican president said at a press conference hours before his arrival in Ciudad Juarez.

And this is not the first time that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has criticized US policy on the matter. But his appeals remain unsuccessful, as he explained, whether with former President Donald Trump or Joe Biden, even if he acknowledges that the latter, thanks to a temporary visa program, has helped to reduce "considerably" the migratory flow.

Mexico has spent $100 million on social programs in Central America, according to the Mexican president, who is again calling on the White House to do the same.

(

With AFP)

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Read on on the same topics:

  • Mexico
  • International migration
  • United States
  • Immigration
  • Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador