Six people were ordered arrested over the deadly fire at a migrant detention center that killed 39 people in Mexico earlier this week.
The migrant accused of starting the fire on Monday, three officials from the National Immigration Institute and two private security guards were named by officials.
Sara Irene Herrerías, the federal prosecutor leading the investigation into the blaze in Ciudad Juárez, said five of the six had already been arrested and would be charged with homicide and causing injuries.
The fire started inside a holding cell Monday night and left more than two dozen people injured. Twenty-seven migrants remain hospitalized in serious or critical condition, said Federal Public Safety Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez.
She added that Grupo de Seguridad Privada CAMSA, the security company at the facility, would have its operating permit revoked and face a fine. The company had been contracted to work at immigration facilities in 23 states.
Video of the incident showed guards walking away from the fire and not attempting to open the holding cell to let people escape.
On Wednesday, the federal Attorney General’s Office accused retired Navy Rear Adm. Salvador González Guerrero, the top immigration official in Chihuahua, of ordering the migrants to not be released despite knowing about the fire.
González Guerrero “gave the order by way of a phone call that under no circumstances should the migrants ‘housed’ inside the place where the fire started be released,” the complaint read.
According to reports, a migrant set a mattress on fire inside the cell in protest of their treatment by the facility’s guards.
“The officials made fun of them, they got irritated and two of them [migrants] set a mattress on fire,” stated Jorge Vázquez Campbell, who wrote the complaint.
Rodríguez said the investigation was looking into where the holding cell’s keys were located, how the lighter got into the cell and why there was flammable material in the cell.
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday that the attorney general had freedom to pursue any avenue and that no officials would be exempt from possible punishment.