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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 13 april 2023
Mexican immigration agency chief to be charged in fatal fire

By FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ, they failed to act.
SONIA PÉREZ D. and There have long been
MARÍA VERZA complaints about corrup-
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mex- tion and bad conditions at
ico’s top immigration of- Mexico’s migrant deten-
ficial will face criminal tion facilities, but they have
charges in a fire that killed never been seriously ad-
40 migrants in Ciudad dressed.
Juarez last month, with fed- López Obrador’s com-
eral prosecutors saying he ments about the guards in
was remiss in not prevent- last month’s fire in the bor-
ing the disaster despite ear- der city of Ciudad Juarez
lier indications of problems came on the same day
at his agency’s detention that the bodies of 17 Gua-
centers. temala migrants and six
The decision to file charges Hondurans killed in the fire
against Francisco Gardu- were flown back to their
ño, the head of Mexico’s home countries.
National Immigration Insti- It was unclear what effect
tute, was announced late López Obrador’s com-
Tuesday by the federal At- ments might have on the
torney General’s Office. trial of the guards, who
It followed repeated calls Foreign Ministry officers hold portraits beside the coffins of Guatemalan migrants whose remains were detained previously
from within Mexico, and arrived at La Aurora Air Force Base in Guatemala City, Tuesday, April 11, 2023. over the fire.
from some Central Ameri- Associated Press “The door was closed, be-
can nations, not to stop the what they would charge that they didn’t have the The press office of the immi- cause the person who had
case at the five low-level him with. keys. gration agency that Gar- the keys wasn’t there,”
officials, guards and a Ven- “We are going to wait and The Attorney General’s Of- duño heads did respond to López Obrador said.
ezuelan migrant already we are going to make de- fice said several other offi- messages and phone calls A video from a security
facing homicide charges in cisions in the (right) mo- cers of Garduño’s agency requesting comment. camera inside the facil-
the case. ment,” López Obrador said. will also face charges for Prosecutors said that after ity shows guards walking
On Wednesday, President Anger initially focused on failing to carry out their du- a fire at another detention away when the fire started
Andrés Manuel López two guards who were seen ties, the statement said, but center in the Gulf coast in late March inside the cell
Obrador said that even fleeing the March 27 fire, prosecutors did not explain state of Tabasco killed holding migrants.
though the Attorney Gen- without unlocking the cell what specific charges or one person and injured 14 The guards are seen hurry-
eral’s Office was investigat- door to allow the migrants identify the officials. in 2020, the immigration ing away as smoke fills the
ing Garduño, prosecutors to escape. But President Prosecutors said the case agency knew there were facility, and they did not
had revealed few details Andrés Manuel López Ob- showed a “pattern of irre- problems which needed to appear to make any effort
and it was not exactly clear rador said earlier Tuesday sponsibility” be corrected. but alleged to release the migrants. q

Taliban say there’s no obstacles for U.N. work in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The crucial for the delivery of of the supreme leader’s in- as he set out the Taliban’s their own feet.”
Taliban’s chief spokesman life-saving aid to millions ner circle, denied authori- position and demands to Aid agencies have been
said Wednesday there are of Afghans, and has in- ties were to blame for Af- the international commu- providing food, education
no obstacles for the U.N. structed its national staff, ghanistan’s many crises. nity. and health care support to
to function in Afghanistan, male and female, to stay The decision to bar Afghan “This decision does not Afghans in the wake of the
after they barred Afghan at home. women from working at the mean there is discrimina- Taliban takeover and the
women from working at the Zabihullah Mujahid, the U.N. was an internal matter tion here, or that the ac- economic collapse that
global body. Taliban-led government’s and should be respected tivities of the United Nations followed it.
Last week, the country’s chief spokesman and part by all sides, Mujahid said, are blocked. On the con- But distribution has been
Taliban rulers took a step trary, we are committed severely affected by a Tal-
further in the restrictive to all the rights of all our iban edict banning women
measures they have im- countrymen, taking into from working at non-gov-
posed on women and account their religious and ernmental organizations
said that female Afghan cultural interests. and, now, also at the U.N,
staffers employed with the “Considering the emergen- allegedly because they
U.N. mission can no longer cy situation in Afghanistan, weren’t wearing the hijab,
report for work. The ban is it is necessary for the mem- or Islamic headscarf cor-
being actively enforced by ber countries of the United rectly, or following gender
the country’s intelligence Nations to resolve the prob- segregation.
agency, which reports to lem of frozen Afghan as- A spokesman for the Minis-
the Taliban’s leadership in sets, banking, travel bans try of Foreign Affairs, Abdul
Kandahar. and other restrictions as Qahar Balkhi, called the or-
The U.N. says it cannot ac- soon as possible so that Af- der barring Afghan women
cept the decision, calling it ghanistan can progress in from NGO and U.N. work
unlawful and an unparal- Afghan women chant and hold signs of protest during a economic, political and se- “an internal values-based
leled violation of women’s demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 26, 2022. curity areas. Afghans have issue” that is not harming
rights. It says women are Associated Press the capacity to stand on others.q