Juárez Fire Survivor: Garduño’s SEP Appointment a ‘Mockery’ Amid Ongoing Legal Battle
MEXICO CITY (Proceso). Brayan Flamenco Quintero, one of the 27 survivors of the devastating fire at the Ciudad Juárez migrant detention center in Chihuahua on March 27, 2023, which claimed the lives of 40 migrants, could not believe the news circulating on social media: Francisco Garduño Yáñez, the former commissioner of the National Migration Institute (INM), was assigned a director-general position in the Ministry of Public Education (SEP), despite still facing an open legal process related to the tragedy.
Flamenco, who actively participates in the trial for the fire that killed three of his friends, attends hearings at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), and was present at Garduño’s public apology on September 26 last year, found it “inconceivable” that President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo stated on January 21 that Garduño Yáñez “is no longer under any type of process.”
A Question of Justice and Protection
“How is it possible that she can be placing in public office a person accused of being one of those responsible for the Ciudad Juárez fire, and how she tries to protect him?” questioned Brayan from El Salvador in an interview with Proceso. For the young Salvadoran, who suffered internal injuries and burns that left him in a coma for a month due to the fire, Garduño is “a man who should not hold any public office; he should be paying for something he is being held responsible for, and they are protecting him at all costs.”
Indignant at the news and what it means for the survivors and families of the deceased migrants, Flamenco stated that “fighting with the Mexican government is fighting with a monster, because unfortunately, it is full of corruption.” Brayan condemned President Sheinbaum’s statements regarding Garduño’s appointment as director-general of the SEP’s Center for Work Training, and her assertion that he “is no longer under process.”
“We are precisely seeing a declaration from the president. It is corruption that has full support and sends a message to the organizations that are accusing this man that she will protect him at all costs, and that it will be difficult for this man to pay for something, that is, to pay for his responsibilities,” he warned.
Brayan, who almost three years after the incident still has nightmares that take him back to the “hell” of the migrant facility and lives with the aftermath of his injuries, said the news of Garduño’s appointment made him think of his friends Enrique, Milton, and Andrés, and the 37 other migrants who died, as well as their families.
“I feel like the man is laughing in our faces, right? It’s like he says, ‘Well, they burned themselves, they did this, and, as the Mexican saying goes, ‘Go to hell!’,” Brayan exclaimed. He insisted, “He is too protected, I would say. How can someone who is accused of responsibility for a fire where people died be rewarded by being given another position? A man who shouldn’t even be free is still given confidence. It shows that the government is with him and that the government also mocks the pain of the families of the deceased. It is very disrespectful to me.”
With sequelae that prevent him from normalizing his life and working fully to support his family, Brayan Flamenco Quintero reflected on the highly inequitable situation. “He (Garduño) I think he has reached 76 years of age, and he is happy, he is taking public office. On the other hand, I, at 30 years old, who had internal injuries, in my kidneys, lungs, respiratory tract, sometimes at night I feel like I run out of oxygen, I feel like we are not at 100%, and that for me is a problem, also for work, you cannot do it very well because you know that you have to take great care of yourself,” Flamenco Quintero pointed out.
Garduño’s Controversial Career and the SEP Appointment
Forged in the political group of René Bejarano, Francisco Garduño posted on his Facebook account a message from the Secretary of Education, Mario Delgado, announcing that the former INM commissioner “has been appointed by President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo as director-general of Centers for Work Training,” describing him as “an exemplary official.”
Born in Acámbaro, Guanajuato, in 1948, Garduño presents himself on his website, created in 2022, as a politician loyal to Andrés Manuel López Obrador “since the fight against fraud in the state of Tabasco” in the 1990s. In his photo gallery, Garduño appears alongside the former president in Palenque, at a morning conference, at the facilities of the Old City Hall Palace, or under the platform of some mass event.
His profile highlights his work as an official in the Tabasco administration when he was head of the Mexico City government, in the Secretariat of Transport and Roads (2002-2005) and the Undersecretariat of Government (2005-2006), and from 2018 in the federal government as commissioner of the Decentralized Administrative Body for Prevention and Social Reintegration (OADPRS) and at the head of the INM, a management that has been severely questioned by human rights defenders of migrants, for acts of corruption and violence against that population. Regarding this last position with López Obrador, Garduño, who assumes himself in his profile as a “defender” of human rights, maintains that during his management he addressed “the greatest migration crisis of recent times,” omitting to mention the fire in the Ciudad Juárez migrant facility.
Still Under Process: Legal Experts Refute Official Claims
Marcos Zavala, a lawyer for the Foundation for Justice and the Democratic Rule of Law (FJEDD), lamented that by appointing Francisco Garduño as part of her cabinet, President Claudia Sheinbaum demonstrated “that she is not properly advised.”
Contrary to what Sheinbaum said, Garduño remains under process. Zavala, who belongs to a team of defenders from several social organizations representing 17 families of deceased victims and survivors, refuted Sheinbaum’s statement that the former commissioner “is no longer under any type of process.”
“In criminal case 237/2023, he remains linked for the crime of illicit exercise of public service, for which we have a hearing scheduled for September 1, 2026. The process is not closed, it remains open, and the gentleman will have to appear personally at the Federal Criminal Justice Center in Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez,” the lawyer stated in an interview.
He warned that the hearing is scheduled to determine compliance with seven measures imposed by the judge in a January 24, 2025 hearing, based on the “undue benefit by which Garduño was granted a conditional suspension.” He explained that these measures are mandatory: “Even after he has left office, he would have to ensure that they are complied with,” such as the public apology, which the victims “did not consider to be a heartfelt apology that would restore their dignity,” as well as the coverage of economic compensation for the victims and their families, “to which he personally had committed, and of which we have no knowledge that he has delivered.”
He pointed out that the compensations granted to the survivors and the families of the victims respond to recommendation 111VG/2023 of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) addressed to the INM, not to the open criminal process against Garduño. Other measures imposed include taking six months of courses on civil protection and human rights; ensuring that surviving victims receive medical attention at the IMSS (an impossible measure to comply with because the victims cannot travel from their countries of origin to Mexico City); guaranteeing dignified conditions with civil protection in migrant facilities, as well as a national registry of INM retentions.
Marcos Zavala explained that in addition to the hearing scheduled for September 1 in Ciudad Juárez, the resolutions of two appeals filed by the organizations representing the victims are pending and would be applicable to all affected. The first procedure, he added, derives from the first hearing on April 30, 2023, in which “procedural fraud was committed because the 40 deceased victims and the 27 surviving individuals were never represented, nor was he disqualified as requested, which allowed him to be linked only for a minor or low-impact crime, which does not exceed five years in its arithmetic mean, and that allows him to obtain the benefit of conditional suspension, while the other 11 defendants are being linked for homicides and injuries. We see a deficiency, selective justice and preferential treatment precisely to later obtain this benefit.”
The organizations also challenged the judge’s resolution of January 24, 2025, by which Garduño was granted the benefit of conditional suspension of process 237/2023, and which is what motivates the September hearing. “When we saw the file, we realized that the great absent ones were the victims. The State failed them doubly, first because it did not guarantee optimal, dignified conditions in a migrant facility, they let 40 people die and 27, well, almost cut short their lives, and then they failed to guarantee them access to truth, justice, and reparation,” Zavala reproached.
After describing the criminal procedures that the victims’ defense still has, the lawyer insisted that “we still have a long way to go in the process of Mr. Francisco Garduño, and what the president says, unfortunately ill-advised, makes no sense. He may still be subject to process for at least another year and a half.”
Brayan Flamenco Quintero does not lose hope that justice will be served. “I believe that no one leaves without paying something in this life. The gentleman (Garduño) must keep in mind, if he has a conscience, that he was responsible for something that is still being talked about. My burns remind me where I come from, where I was, and where I came out alive.”
“Justice for me is that the process continues, that the man is held responsible for what he did, and that compensation from his part to the families is recognized, that he does not believe that this has been easy for us, because we have to be fighting for our lives,” Brayan Flamenco concluded.
