Survivor of Mexico migrant center fire that left 40 dead remembers it 'every day'
Groups representing the families as well as victims' relatives say that none of the criminal cases against 11 defendants, including eight officials, have gone to trial.
Rubbelsy Pérez Rodríguez remembers the 2023 fire at the Ciudad Juárez immigration center “every day,” he said, including every time he runs out of breath, as he did that night, and especially at night, when he can still hear the sounds of despair.
Rubbelsy Pérez RodríguezAlbinson Linares“Everyone was screaming. I swear I still remember those screams — they were screams of anguish,” the Guatemalan immigrant said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo from his home in Springfield, Tennessee. “No one knew what to do. Out of desperation, some started banging on the doors, but they were made of iron and couldn’t be opened,” said Pérez Rodríguez, 40.
On the night of March 27, 2023, at a facility located in the border town of Ciudad Juárez, 40 migrants from Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras and El Salvador were killed by asphyxiation as a result of a fire started by two Venezuelan migrants, according to investigations by Mexican authorities. Security videos leaked after the incident appeared to show smoke coming out of a cell and immigration agents fleeing without helping the locked migrants.
Pérez Rodríguez is one of the dozens injured during the fire.
"I remember the shortness of breath, the hot smoke — it’s all quite frustrating because you want to breathe but you can’t," Pérez Rodríguez said. "My entire airway was burned, and I had two injuries to my right lung," he said, noting that he suffers the consequences of these injuries on a daily basis.
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