Mexico Ends Case Against Ex-Migration Chief
A federal judge closed the case against Mexico's former migration chief over the 2023 Ciudad Juárez fire that killed 40 migrants. Victims plan to appeal. The post Mexico Ends Case Against Ex-Migration Chief appeared first on The Rio Times .
A federal judge in Ciudad Juárez has closed the case against Mexico's former migration chief, Francisco Garduño. Garduño was charged with unlawful exercise of public office for failing to oversee the safety of migrants locked in a detention cell during a fire on March 27, 2023, that killed 40 people. Judge Victor Manlio Hernández Calderón ruled on October 13 that Garduño met the conditions of a 2025 arrangement that suspended his prosecution, sparing him a trial.
However, survivors and victims' families plan to appeal the decision, as the ruling is not yet final. The fire broke out at a detention center near the US border, and while 27 people were injured, 40 died, mostly Guatemalan migrants. The case began on April 2023, and although the prosecutor from the Attorney General's Office had no objection to closing the case, Garduño maintains he was not negligent and blamed two Venezuelan migrants for starting the fire.
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