Guatemala girls home fire kills 34

waltky · Mar 10, 2017

34 Girls Burned to Death in Fire at Guatemala girls shelter...

Guatemala Mourns for 34 Girls Burned to Death in Fire at State-Run Shelter
March 09, 2017 - Guatemala is in mourning after the horrific fire Wednesday that killed 34 teenage girls at a shelter for troubled young people near Guatemala City.

Nineteen of the girls died at the scene — their charred bodies covered with blankets outside the building. Fifteen victims later died from their burns at the hospital. Others are fighting for their lives. Police and witnesses say mattresses were deliberately set on fire in a part of the shelter where the girls were locked down after trying to escape.

The state-run Virgin of the Assumption Safe Home was built to hold 500, but as many as 800 boys and girls were being housed there — frequently complaining of bad food, shabby facilities, fights and sex abuse.

A relative of a youth who resided at the Virgin of the Assumption Safe Home wails as she waits for the release of the names of those who died in a fire at the shelter, outside the morgue where the bodies are being identified in Guatemala City

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has called for three days of mourning. He blames the disaster on officials who he says ignored orders to move many of the residents to other facilities. "The government regrets the fact that those authorities did not heed that request in an opportune way, something which could have prevented the tragedy," Morales said Thursday.

The "safe home" was built to shelter teenagers who were living on the streets because of violence at home or drug addiction. A former employee of the home called it "a ticking time bomb."

http://www.voanews.com/a/guatemala-...ath-in-fire-at-state-run-shelter/3758317.html
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'Nightmare' Scenes After Guatemala Shelter Fire Kills 30, More at Risk
March 09, 2017 — A fire that ripped through an overcrowded home for abused children in Guatemala killed at least 30 people, mostly girls, and doctors on Thursday described their shock at the severity of the burns suffered by two dozen more hospitalized victims.

“I’ve been doing this for 29 years. What I saw yesterday was a scene from Dante," said Juan Antonio Villeda, director of the San Juan de Dios hospital, where 17 patients with extremely serious first- and second-degree burns were being treated. The fire broke out on Wednesday as some residents allegedly set mattresses ablaze following an escape attempt from the government-run Virgen de Asuncion home for youths aged up to 18, in San Jose Pinula, 25 km (15 miles) southwest of the capital, Guatemala City.

Overcrowding a major problem

Investigators were trying to determine whether the fire was started by a group that authorities had isolated after the escape attempt on Tuesday night. Guatemala has Latin America's worst rates of child malnutrition and street gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha prey on minors, making it an often dangerous place to grow up. The Central American nation's public institutions are underfunded, racked by corruption and widespread overcrowding. Criticism is mounting about conditions in the home, which housed boys and girls. Presidential spokesman Heinz Heimann said victims of abuse were mixed in with juvenile offenders in what he criticized as open living arrangements. Parents alleged abuse at the center, including rape, and said gangs operated there.

National Police guard the entrance to the children's shelter Virgin of the Assumption Safe Home where people gather in San Jose Pinula, Guatemala

Many more victims in critical conditions

More than 500 minors were in the home in a wooded area outside the semi-rural town of San Jose Pinula, although Guatemalan media said its capacity was 400. Doctors announced eight deaths overnight of residents of the home who had been treated for injuries at hospitals in Guatemala City, and said some 24 more were in critical condition. “In my 13-year career I have never seen injuries like this. It is tragic,” said Carlos Soto, director of the Roosevelt hospital, describing severe burns to their lungs, throats and skin.

http://www.voanews.com/a/nightmare-scenes-after-guatemala-shelter-first-kills-30/3757534.html
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waltky · Mar 11, 2017

Morales calls for a restructuring of his country’s youth shelter system...

Guatemalan leader vows change after deadly fire
Sat, Mar 11, 2017 - Guatemala’s president called for a restructuring of his country’s youth shelter system following a fire that killed at least 35 girls at an overcrowded government facility 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,” Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said, 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 on Thursday night, in a low-income neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala’s capital, relatives and friends gathered for the wake of 14-year-old Madelyn Patricia Hernandez Hernandez. A wooden casket swathed in white silk and flanked by tall candles sat inside the family’s humble home. A picture of Madelyn stood between purple flowers. Madelyn had been orphaned since the age of three when gang members killed her mother for not paying extortion, said her grandmother, Maria Antonia Garcia. Her father had not been involved in her life.

People take part in a protest at the Square of the Constitution in Guatemala City on Friday following the death of 35 girls in a fire at a government-run children’s shelter in San Jose Pinula.

Madelyn had misbehaved, but was expected to get out of the shelter on March 30 after several months in the facility, Garcia said. However, a judge did not want to return the girl to the custody of her 73-year-old grandmother because of her age. Garcia said Madelyn had complained that she and other girls were beaten. “She never told me who beat them,” the grandmother said, demanding justice from authorities. “If there isn’t justice now, they are going to keep doing the same. It’s going to happen again.”

Nineteen girls died at the scene of the fire and another 16 later succumbed to their injuries in area hospitals. Geovany Castillo said his 15-year-old daughter, Kimberly, suffered burns on her face, arms and hands, but survived. She was in a locked area where girls who took part in the escape attempt had been placed, he said. “My daughter said the area was locked and that several girls broke down a door, and she survived because she put a wet sheet over herself,” Castillo said. “She said the girls told her that they had been raped and in protest they escaped, and that later, to protest, to get attention, they set fire to the mattresses,” he said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2017/03/11/2003666575
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waltky · Mar 11, 2017

Death toll in Guatemala girls shelter fire rises to 38...

Death toll in Guatemala fire rises to 38 girls
Mar 11,`17) -- A key Guatemalan official was ordered not to leave the country Saturday as the death toll rose to 38 girls in fire that began when mattresses were set ablaze during a protest by residents at a youth shelter.

Authorities continued searching over the weekend for answers in the disaster that has put a spotlight on alleged failings in Guatemala's child protective services. The head of the protective services agency, Carlos Rodas, was ordered not to leave Guatemala by a judge on Saturday while investigations into the blaze continue, according to prosecutors' spokeswoman Julia Barrera. Authorities at the Roosevelt Hospital where many of the girls were taken for treatment of their burns said Saturday that another girl had died. Nineteen of the adolescents perished at the scene of the Wednesday inferno and another 19 died later in local hospitals.

Various groups have said they plan to gather Saturday to protest the deaths and demand the resignation of Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales. The president has blamed the government's "rigid" and "insensitive" system for dealing with troubled youths and has promised to reform protective services for some 1,500 minors currently living in youth shelters around the country. Morales blamed the Guatemalan state during a Friday news conference for the tragedy and said that all of the government institutions in charge of minors played a role.

Relatives carry the coffin containing the remains of 17-year-old Siona Hernandez Garcia, a girl who died in a fire at the Virgin of the Assumption Safe Home, at the Guatemala City's cemetery, Friday, March 10, 2017. Families began burying some of the 36 girls killed in a fire at an overcrowded government-run youth shelter in Guatemala as authorities worked to determine exactly what happened.

Carlos Soto, administrator of Hospital San Juan de Dios, another hospital caring for many of the burned children, told The Associated Press on Friday that medical specialists had arrived from Galveston, Texas, to help evaluate the condition of several with the intention of having them travel to the United States for treatment. On Saturday, Soto said that it was hoped that at least four of the girls could travel to the United States this weekend. He said the adolescents had burns on their faces, torsos and legs.

Officials say the fire began when mattresses were set afire during a protest by residents at the shelter housing hundreds of boys and girls. Questions remained over why someone among the girls set the blaze and whether doors remained locked as the girls pleaded for their lives. Widespread reports by some victims' relatives have said that some of the girls set mattresses on fire to protest their apprehension and return to the facility after fleeing the previous night because of mistreatment, bad food and fears of rape. Parents and relatives said many of the young people at the shelter had been sent there because of abuse, poverty or family problems. Others were ordered there by judges after run-ins with police, officials said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-11-14-13-10
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waltky · Apr 6, 2017

Officials from Social Welfare agency charged over girl's shelter fire...

Guatemala charges officials over shelter fire that killed 41 girls
April 5, 2017 -- Guatemala's Public Ministry said prosecutors charged three former officials from the Secretariat of Social Welfare agency over the deaths of 41 girls in the fire at the government-run Virgen de la Asunción shelter.

In a statement Tuesday, the Public Ministry said the Public Prosecutor's Office charged Guatemala's former Secretary of Social Welfare Carlos Antonio Rodas Mejía, former Under Secretary of Social Welfare Anahí Keller Zavala and former director of the Virgen de la Asunción shelter Hogar Torres Torres Ramírez with culpable homicide, abuse of authority, breach of duties and abuse against minors. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales fired the three officials after the March 8 fire.

Guatemalan prosecutors described the conditions in which the girls lived in the shelter as "terrible." The girls were locked in rooms and were not allowed to leave or go to the bathroom. Authorities said the worst act by the Social Welfare officials, though, was delegating the responsibility of the teens to the National Civil Police after one girl attempted to escape. The police locked the girls in the classroom where the fire occurred and did not render aid when they cried for help.

Dolls on coals meant to represent girls that died in a recent shelter fire are seen during a demonstration at the National Palace in Guatemala City, Guatemala, during a protest on March 11. On Tuesday, three former officials of Guatemala's Secretariat of Social Welfare agency were charged over the incident.

Human rights abuse allegations dating back to as early as 2013 plagued the shelter. The fire caused outrage in Guatemala, which led to protests demanding justice for victims. Prosecutors said the night before the fire dozens of girls tried to escape the facility in San José Pinula. Those who escaped were captured and brought back to the shelter. Officials locked 56 of the girls in a small room, where the fire occurred after a girl set a mattress alight in protest of their treatment at the shelter.

Prosecutors said firefighters were not quickly called to the scene because the incident was first reported as a riot. Public prosecutor Edwin Marroquín said the fire lasted for 25 minutes. Seventeen girls died at the scene and 24 later died in hospitals. The girls "were exposed after about 9 minutes to a temperature above 300 degrees Celsius [572 degrees Fahrenheit] and with less than 21 percent oxygen required, so the odds of survival were minimal," Marroquín said during a press conference.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...?utm_source=sec&utm_campaign=sl&utm_medium=16
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Margot2 · Apr 6, 2017

Oh how tragic.........

waltky · Jun 26, 2017

5 more Guatemalan officials charged over girls' shelter fire...

Guatemala charges five more officials over fire that killed 41 girls
June 26, 2017 -- Guatemala's Public Ministry said two police and three social welfare officials were charged with crimes after an investigation into the deaths of 41 girls in the fire at the government-run Virgen de la Asunción shelter.

In a statement on Saturday, the Public Ministry said the charges were brought after an investigation showed more people were involved in the tragedy and in other criminal activity not directly related to the fire. Three of the officials, who are remanded while awaiting trial, are identified as Lucinda Eva Marina Marroquín Carrillo, deputy inspector of the National Civil Police, who is charged with manslaughter and mistreatment of minors; Brenda Jullisa Chamam Pacay, department supervisor against abuse for the shelter, who is charged with abuse against minors, breach of duties and manslaughter; and Luis Armando Pérez Borja, a National Civil Police commissary who is charged with abuse of authority and abuse against the elderly.

Dolls on coals meant to represent girls that died in a shelter fire are seen during a demonstration at the National Palace in Guatemala City, Guatemala, during a protest on March 11. On Saturday, five more Guatemalan officials were brought in on charges related to the deadly fire that killed 41 girls

The two other officials facing charges but who are on house arrest were identified as Harold Augusto Flores Valenzuela, chief of the Guatemalan attorney general's child welfare office, who is charged with non-compliance with duties, mistreatment of minors and manslaughter; and Gloria Patricia Castro Gutiérrez, the head of child welfare division for Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman who is charged with breach of duty and abuse of minors. Human rights abuse allegations dating back to 2013 plagued the shelter. The fire caused outrage in Guatemala, which led to protests demanding justice for victims.

Prosecutors said the night before the fire dozens of girls tried to escape the facility in San José Pinula. Those who escaped were captured and brought back to the shelter. Officials locked 56 of the girls in a small room, where the fire occurred after a girl set a mattress alight in protest of their treatment at the shelter. Prosecutors said firefighters were not quickly called to the scene because the incident was first reported as a riot. Public prosecutor Edwin Marroquín said the fire lasted for 25 minutes. Seventeen girls died at the scene and 24 later died in hospitals.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-...?utm_source=sec&utm_campaign=sl&utm_medium=10
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Guatemala girls home fire kills 34

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