Friday, June 6, 2025

Man jailed for 208 years over Mexico City school quake collapse

A court has sentenced a man to 208 years in prison for the criminal homicides of 26 people, most of them children, who died when a school collapsed during a powerful earthquake that struck Mexico City in 2017, authorities said on Wednesday.

The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office said it had shown that the man described as the project director had guaranteed the structural safety of the school in Tlalpan, a southern district of the capital, without carrying out the required testing and despite irregularities in construction.

The man, identified in media reports as Juan Mario Velarde Gámez, had signed off on a renovation of the school in which an apartment was added to the roof of one wing. The additional weight was identified as a factor in the building’s collapse.

The court also ordered Velarde to pay 377,450 pesos (US $19,000) to each of the victims’ families.

Nineteen children and seven adults died when the privately owned Enrique Rébsamen school collapsed during the 7.1-magnitude quake, the most deadly in Mexico in a generation. At least 369 people died in the capital and surrounding states.

Mexican prosecutors said at the time they had opened a probe into the potential criminal responsibility of the owner and private inspectors for the collapse.

The owner, Mónica García Villegas, was sentenced last December to 31 years for manslaughter.

Reuters

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
Sport fishers cast off the fishing boat Red Rooster III

This US sportfishing boat keeps sneaking into Mexico’s natural protected areas. Mexico is still working on how to respond

0
Mexico’s ability to defend its natural refuges is being put to the test in North America's largest marine protected area.
material on fire

Sheinbaum cancels Guerrero trip after protesters sack headquarters of rival teachers union

0
The president called the vandalism a "provocation" after a three-week strike by the dissident CNTE teachers union escalated into violence in Mexico CIty and Guerrero.
A young Mexican student wears a harvard sweatshirt

Mexico City teen who developed AI medical app wins Harvard Book Award

0
The recognition is given out by Harvard alumni to high-achieving students from a pool of 2,000 high schools from around the world.