A 10-year-old Guatemalan migrant died last May 15 at a pediatric hospital in Mexico City. She was arrested in the state of Chihuahua and moved with her mother to the Iztapalapa migratory station. There are three versions about his demise and three open investigations.
He was in custody of the National Institute of Migration (INM) and was transferred to the Medical Center from the migratory station “Las Needles”, located in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. There he died, around 22.30 hours. One or two days before, depending on the versions, she and her mother were driven to the capital from the state of Chihuahua by bus. They wanted to cross the United States illegally, but were detained in Mexico, where they did not have the papers in order.
That’s the only thing we know for certain about the death of a 10-year-old girl. Who was with his mother, wanted to go to the United States, had been arrested in Mexico and was waiting, locked up, to be deported to Guatemala.
There are many other things that we do not know, and that the authorities, who are the ones who guarded the girl and her mother, do not respond.
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We don’t know when mother and daughter were arrested. How many people were accompanying them in their transit. How long they stayed locked up in Chihuahua. Who decided that they should be moved from the north to the capital. What state they were in when they were arrested. How they came from health to Mexico City. When his “assisted return” was planned, which is what this process is called in the jargon of the migratory authorities.
Sources consulted by a political Animal speak of a massive detention of between 30 and 100 migrants arrested from various nationalities.
There are suspicions, embodied in complaints, that lead to investigations. No data.
The @INAMI_mx reports ??? #TarjetaInformativa pic.twitter.com/tR5XWVfrWB
— INM (@INAMI_mx) May 16, 2019
To find out what killed the girl you have to wait for the results of the autopsy, which was held on May 17, while his mother boarded a Aeromexico plane to Guatemala.
The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has opened inquiries at the request of relatives of the victim. Through a note, the institution explained that it had received two complaints made on Thursday, May 16, a day after the girl’s death. The first was at the migratory station, where CNDH staff interviewed the minor’s relatives. They pointed out that both the mother and daughter arrived in Iztapalapa complaining about their state of health. That were seen by a doctor and that this told them that they had infections of throat, ear and lungs and that their treatment would last four days. In turn, the deceased’s uncle called from Guatemala to corroborate that his sister and his niece had been in Iztapalapa for three days (the INM said they carried one) and demanded an investigation.
We issued #MedidasCautelares to the @INAMI_mx for the death of a minor person who was under his shelter at the “Las Needles” migratory station in CDMX. ? https://t.co/5u6iedAgnl pic.twitter.com/UaqtVV0cLR
— CNDH in Mexico (@CNDH) May 18, 2019
Therefore, the CNDH wants to know if the minor “received the necessary and timely attention by the medical and operative personnel” of the migratory Station of Mexico City.
The CNDH’s fifth visitor, Edgar Corzo, reiterated that the allegations presented to his institution reflect what was said by the aggrieved, but now it is time for an investigation to determine what really happened.
The CNDH issued precautionary measures to the INM to provide facilities for the victims ‘ families and to be allowed access to a regular stay in Mexico, as well as to the procedures to be carried out for the death, guaranteeing access to the aid , attention, assistance, justice and truth. In addition, the institution recalled that the same day 15, a day in which the child died, had issued precautionary measures to the INM to “give solution to the overpopulation” of the migratory station.
Since the INM made public the death of the minor the questions have not done but increase. In fact, you don’t even know the reason for the girl’s death.
According to the first version, the girl and her mother arrived in Mexico City by bus from Chihuahua. On arrival, the minor referred to “sore throats”, so, always according to the INM, was treated by a doctor on duty and put into review until his transfer to the hospital, where he died on Wednesday, May 15, at 22.30 hours.
Three different explanations have been disseminated since the death of the public. The INM and the CNDH, which quoted relatives of the victim, speak of a possible disease while Alexander above, under Secretary of Human Rights, claims that the death was provoked by the fall of the minor from a bunk.
“Unfortunately, we had the demise of a ten-year-old Guatemalan girl who suffered an accident in the bedroom where she was with her mom falling out of the bunk,” he said, in statements offered at the end of the president’s morning conference, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The undersecretary attributed the death of the “trauma of the coup”, although he did not deny that he could suffer from a throat infection.
The family of the girl refer to the health problems of which mother and daughter complained in the migratory station. That’s why they want an investigation. The problem is that we do not know when they were arrested or in what situation they were.
What happened to the investigation into the deaths of migrant children on the US-Mexico border?
This lack of information has prompted a new complaint to the CNDH.
The Guatemalan representation in Tijuana protests for not having been informed of the arrest, which occurred in the state of Chihuahua, nor of the transfer of mother and daughter to Mexico City. “There is a complaint of omission of consular notification, which must be credited in the instruction of the dossier”, said, in message of WhatsApp, Edgar Corzo, fifth visitor of the CNDH. Political Animal wanted to know the version of the INM, which did not offer explanations.
After the death of the minor, the mother has been served by personnel of the Embassy of Guatemala in Mexico City. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Central American country, the woman expressed her desire not to trascendiese her identity or that of her daughter and to return as soon as possible to her home, so she was embarked on the Aeromexico flight of 10 a.m. The coffin with the remains of the minor was expected to return as soon as possible. In principle, the autopsy was scheduled for the morning of Friday, May 17th, so repatriation could be given until Monday, 20.
It has not transpired if the mother of the deceased child has expressed her desire to file a complaint. With such a hasty return, the woman also did not have the opportunity to meet with the civil society organizations that usually accompany the migrants in this type of events.
To protest against the death of the minor and protest against Mexican migratory policies, some 60 people concentrated on the morning of May 17 before the National Palace, where Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador pronounced his press conference Daily. In the protest there were representatives of social organizations, hostels in Mexico City and Central American migrants.
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According to El País newspaper, Mexico has tripled the number of deportations during the first five months of the government of López Obrador. Only on Friday, 80 Guatemalans were returned to their country on four buses, according to Alejandra Mena, spokesperson for Migration from the Central American country.
In recent months, five Guatemalan minors have died in their transit to the United States. Four died as they crossed the northern border. This is the first victim to lose his life in Mexican dependencies.
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