Missing key to cell sealed fate of migrants in Mexico fire, president says

Hearses carrying the bodies of migrants from Guatemala and Honduras, who died in a detention center fire, on their way to the airport to be transferred to their places of origin in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, April 11, 2023. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

The 40 migrants who died in a fire at a detention center in Mexico last month were unable to escape because the person with the key to their locked cell was absent, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday.

Mexican authorities have said the blaze began when one or more migrants lit alight their mattresses in protest at their imminent deportation, but have provided few other details about how the March 27 incident claimed so many lives, becoming one of Mexico's deadliest migrant tragedies.