MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s immigration head will face criminal charges in a fire that killed 40 migrants in a detention center last month, but President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that he will not dismiss the official known for his hard line on northbound migration.
Obrador’s decision to keep Francisco Garduño as head of the Mexican Immigration Institute appeared to conflict with the federal Attorney General’s Office announcement to charge Garduño in connection with the blaze.
That shows both some separation of powers in Mexico and the conundrum faced by the Mexican government. López Obrador and his administration are struggling with U.S. pressure to slow the flow of migrants while the international community calls on them to treat migrants humanely and safely.
López Obrador’s comments came on the same day that relatives gathered in rural Guatemala to hold funerals for some of the victims of the deadly fire.
Thousands of people gathered in the Guatemalan village of Chicacao for the funeral of Francisco Gaspar Rojché Chiquival and his uncle Miguel Rojché Zapalu, two of the 19 Guatemalans who died of smoke inhalation or burns in the March 27 fire.
“I am destroyed, I am wounded,” said the younger man’s father, Manuel Rojché. “This is a very hard blow.”
PARIS (AP) — A French investigative news website claims that actor Gérard Depardieu has been accused of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting 13 young women, mainly extras.
Most of the claims reported by the Mediapart website relate to film shoots between 2004 and 2022.
None of the women has filed a complaint. Depardieu himself has denied any criminal behavior.
Depardieu, 74, is among France’s most well-known stars. He was placed under investigation in December 2020 for rape and sexual assault, reportedly at his Paris home, following claims by an actress in 2018. The investigation is ongoing.
Mediapart, which is regarded as a reliable website, published the accusations in an article. They feed into the long-standing stereotype of an industry full of dirty secrets where silence is golden.
The incidents allegedly took place in public places, mainly on film sets.
In a Manhattan cabaret for the filming of the 2015 movie “Big House,” Depardieu allegedly tried to fondle three non-French extras. One of them, then aged 24, recounted to Mediapart, “I felt his fingers trying to slip in to get to my knickers.”
MOSCOW (AP) — A volcano spewed out ash for a second day on Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, throwing clouds of dust high into the sky and blanketing wide areas.
Shiveluch, one of Kamchatka’s most active volcanoes, started erupting spewing dust over 500 kilometers (more than 300 miles) northwest and engulfing several villages in grey volcanic dust in the largest fallout in nearly 60 years.
The Kamchatka branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Geophysical Survey said the eruption continued Wednesday, spewing clouds of dust 10 kilometers (more than 6 miles) into the sky.
Since the start of the eruption, the area has been closed to aircraft and residents have been advised to stay indoors.
The villages located about 50 kilometers (some 30 miles) from the volcano, were covered by a 20-centimeter (nearly 8-inch) layer of dust. Residents posted videos showing the ash cloud plunging the area into darkness.
Shiveluch has two parts — the 3,283-meter (10,771-foot) Old Shiveluch, and the smaller, highly active Young Shiveluch.
The Kamchatka Peninsula, which extends into the Pacific Ocean about 6,600 kilometers (4,000 miles) east of Moscow, is one of the world’s most concentrated area of geothermal activity, with about 30 active volcanoes.
