Nation in mourning after shelter blaze kills 22 girls
SAN JOSE PINULA: Guatemala declared three days of mourning after a blaze in a government-run children’s shelter killed at least 22 teenage girls and focused attention on allegations of sexual and other abuse in the facility.
All those killed were aged between 14 and 17. Most died of burns in the fire in the Virgin of the Assumption Safe Home in San Jose Pinula, 10km east of Guatemala City, officials said.
A total of 38 other people were injured, 16 of them in a critical condition, hospital officials said.
President Jimmy Morales said on national television that he had ordered the dismissal of the shelter’s director.
The blaze was believed to have started during an overnight rebellion in the centre, which holds nearly double the 400 people it was designed to house. Some youths tried to escape, news reports said.
Mr Morales said that before the fire, orders had been given to transfer some of the youths to other facilities because of the overcrowding.
“They were serving food to the teenagers when some of them started a fire in a mattress and that’s how the fire was set,” said Abner Paredes, a prosecutor defending children’s rights.
Human rights activists held a vigil on Wednesday night, lighting candles and placing flowers outside the shelter and in the main square in Guatemala City.
“It was a ticking time bomb. This was to be expected,” one of the centre’s former employees, Angel Cardenas, said outside. He said he had lodged several warnings about conditions inside.
Crying relatives crowded the entrance to the shelter, searching for news of the children kept there. Police blocked access to them and to journalists. A few survivors were seen hugging kin on the pine treelined road. But many other family members were left unattended.
“They don’t want to give any information at all,” said Rosa Aguirre, a 22-yearold street vendor who had rushed from the capital to see if her two sisters, aged 13 and 15, and her 17-year-old brother were among the casualties.
She said many frustrated people had gone to hospitals to see if their relatives were there.
Ms Aguirre said she, too, had lodged complaints about how the centre’s residents were treated, but received no attention.
She said brawls broke out inside often and her brother was sometimes put in a dark isolation cell nicknamed the “chicken coop” by shelter residents. She said she had tried in vain to gain custody of her siblings after their mother’s death four months ago.
Guatemalan media said the shelter’s occupants had revolted overnight and into Wednesday against alleged sexual abuse by staff and over poor food and conditions.
The centre, supervised by state authorities, hosts minors under age 18 who are victims of domestic violence or found living on the street.
They are sent there by court order and are under the responsibility of the social welfare ministry.
The shelter has been the target of multiple complaints alleging abuse. Dozens of children have run away in the past year, reportedly to escape ill treatment.
A prosecutor for upholding children’s rights, Hilda Morales, told reporters she was requesting the shelter be closed because of welfare authorities’ inability to manage it.
“We are going to ask for the immediate closure of the centre and attribute administrative and criminal responsibility against those in charge of the centre for not fulfilling their duty,” she said.