Mexican president vows to deliver justice for migrants killed in fire

All the victims were male, and Mexico's government is under pressure to find out why they died after officials said that the women migrants at the center were successfully evacuated. A short video circulating on social media on Tuesday - appearing to be security footage from inside the center during the blaze - showed men kicking on the bars of a locked door as their cell filled with smoke.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday vowed to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of 39 migrants in a fire at a migrant holding center in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez this week. Outside a hospital in Ciudad Juarez, which sits across the border from El Paso, Texas, family members anxiously waited for news of their loved ones who had been injured in the fire.

Among them was Viangly Infante, daughter in her arms, whose husband Eduard Caraballo survived the blaze. Being fed oxygen through his nose, Infante said her husband was being treated for smoke inhalation. She hoped he would be released from the hospital on Thursday. Migration officials on Wednesday increased the death toll to 39, saying one person had died of their injuries.

Authorities believe the fire late on Monday, which killed mostly men from Guatemala and other Central American countries, was started by migrants setting alight mattresses in an act of protest when they discovered they would be deported. An investigation is underway to determine what happened at the center, which Lopez Obrador said employed staff from the government's National Migration Institute (INM) as well as personnel from a private contractor.

"There'll be no attempt to hide the facts, no attempt to cover for anyone," he told a news conference in Mexico city. All the victims were male, and Mexico's government is under pressure to find out why they died after officials said that the women migrants at the center were successfully evacuated.

A short video circulating on social media on Tuesday - appearing to be security footage from inside the center during the blaze - showed men kicking on the bars of a locked door as their cell filled with smoke. Three uniformed people can be seen walking past without trying to open the door. Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez later appeared to confirm the video's veracity to local media.

The fire, one of the deadliest migrant tragedies in years, occurred as the U.S. and Mexico are battling to cope with record levels of border crossings at their shared frontier. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday evening that those "directly responsible" had been handed over to the attorney general's office. He provided no further details.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)