President seeks to restructure youth shelters after fire

GUATEMALA CITY— Guatemala’s president called for a restructuring of his country’s youth shelter system after a fire that killed at least 37 girls at an overcrowded government center for children, while grieving families began receiving the bodies of their loved ones.

The shelter outside Guatemala City held about 800 children and mixed victims of abuse with youthful offenders. Relatives and officials said Wednesday’s blaze began when youths set fire to mattresses to protest abuses at the Virgin of the Assumption Safe House. The flames swept through the female section of the facility where some of the girls had been locked inside a dormitory after an escape attempt.

“This is a rigid system that has become insensitive,” said President Jimmy Morales, adding that there are 1,500 children in government facilities across Guatemala, the vast majority of whom have families.

Morales called for the system to be decentralized. Despite his promises of change, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the seat of government calling for the president’s resignation.

Late Thursday night, in a low-income neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala’s capital, relatives and friends gathered for the wake of 14year-old Madelyn Patricia Hernandez.

Madelyn had been orphaned since gang members killed her mother for not paying extortion when she was three years old, said her grandmother, Maria Antonia Garcia. Her father had not been involved in her life.

Garcia said Madelyn had complained that she and other girls were beaten.

Nineteen girls died at the scene of the fire and another 18 later succumbed to their injuries in area hospitals.