Migrants Search for Bodies of Loved Ones After Mexico Fire

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — One week after a deadly fire in a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, left 39 people dead and dozens more seriously injured, some victims’ families and friends are still looking for answers about their loved ones.

The day after the fire, Mexican authorities released the names of all 68 men who were detained at the time, but the list initially did not specify who had died, and who was alive and injured.

Abel Manuel Maldonado Pérez, 28, of Venezuela, spent three days crisscrossing the city on foot and by taxi to visit hospitals, the public prosecutor’s office and the morgue, searching for answers about his 26-year-old brother, Orlando.

“Give us information,” he said. “We’re human beings.”

Later that week, the Mexican government released the names of those deceased during a news conference. Orlando’s name was included.

Despite this information, Abel has yet to receive any direct communication from government officials, or any details on where his brother’s body might be found. “We want to see them, hold them, have them,” he said. “To be certain it is them.”

Mexican authorities are currently investigating the fire as a homicide case. At least five people have been arrested, including government migration officials, two security workers and a migrant suspected of starting the fire.