The teenagers were being held in a state-run home in 2017. The court orders an investigation into former president Jimmy Morales.
Sofía Menchú writes in El País América on the outcome of the trial against state functionaries with regard to the fire which consumed the lives of 41 young women in the Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción.
“During these eight years, I have asked myself the question and continue to ask myself: What was in the hearts of these people that they did not hear the cry for help, that they did not open the door when we were asking them for help?” said Emelin Del Cid, a Guatemalan girl who survived a raging fire that killed 41 of her classmates, aged between 13 and 17.
On Tuesday, a Guatemalan court sentenced four former officials and two former police officers to between 6 and 25 years in prison for the deaths of the minors, who died on March 8, 2017. They were part of a group of 56 who had been locked up by the authorities at the Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción as punishment. The day before, the minors had run away, escaping the abuse they were receiving at the shelter.
The center, attached to the Secretariat of Social Welfare, has the mission of protecting minors who are victims of abandonment, violence, and child abuse. Forty-one teenagers died that day and the rest were left with severe burns.
“One of the teenagers, a witness, said that one of the girls had lit a match and started to set fire to one of the mattresses (…) they started screaming and crying for someone to open the door. However, the door was not opened. The police officers on the second shift stated that they began to see smoke coming out of that room and that they began to alert the deputy inspector.”
“The deputy inspector did not respond to the call because she was on the phone, and when she was told that the girls were going to burn, she said, ‘Let those daughters of bitches burn,’” said Ingrid Cifuentes, the judge of the court, prior to reading the sentence.
The magistrate added that nine minutes after the fire started, they opened the door and notified the fire department, but did not inform the firefighters, so they did not arrive prepared to extinguish the flames and only began to separate the bodies.
The six convicted individuals will serve prison time for homicide, child abuse, breach of duty, and abuse of authority. Of all the defendants, only the former Children’s Ombudsman of the Attorney General’s Office, Harold Flores, was acquitted.
Cifuentes also expressed concern that high levels of substances such as morphine, fentanyl, methanol, ethanol, acetone, and anti-anxiety drugs such as clonazepam were found in some of the girls and adolescents who died.
Jimmy Morales under investigation
Judge Cifuentes also ordered the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the then-former president, Jimmy Morales (2016-2020), for his possible responsibility in the case known as Hogar Seguro.
Morales was mentioned by some witnesses as part of the chain of command that ordered the minors to be locked up.
At the end of the sentencing, the relatives of the deceased and survivors shouted “Justice!” and applauded and hugged each other to celebrate the ruling.
The piece is originally in Spanish and any errors in translation are mine.
You can read the original, here, Condenados en Guatemala seis exfuncionarios por la muerte de 41 menores en un incendio.
There was this in El Faro English for a podcast – Sweeping Conviction Punishes Guatemalan Children’s Home Fire:
A criminal court ruled Carlos Rodas, former secretary of welfare for the Presidency, guilty. Santos Torres, former director of Hogar Seguro, guilty. Brenda Chamán, former head of protection against abuse at the Welfare Secretariat, guilty. Luis Pérez, former head of operations at the 13th station of the National Civil Police, guilty. Lucinda Marroquín, former deputy police inspector, guilty. Gloria Castro, former children’s advocate at the Human Rights Ombudsman, guilty.
They each received between 25 and six years in prison, partly commutable. Only the seventh defendant, Harold Flores, former head of the Office for Minors at the Ombudsman, was acquitted for lack of evidence. Anahí Keller, the former undersecretary of social welfare, was also removed from the case on May 15 by the Constitutional Court.
We posted this at the time, Hell is not a Metaphor for this Place and there are further posts here, GSN – hogar seguro.
Categories: Corruption, Femicide, Gender, Guatemala, Human Rights, Justice, Poverty, Violence
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