Guatemala fire death toll rises to 36 amid calls for change

“I heard on the news that my daughter was one of the girls who set the fire at the shelter, that’s not true,” she said. “My daughter wouldn’t try to take her own life.”

That was a reference to widespread reports — including some by other victims’ relatives — that some of the girls set mattresses on fire to protest their re-apprehension and return to the facility they said they had fled because of mistreatment, bad food and fears of rape.

Nineteen girls died at the scene of the fire and another 17 later succumbed to their injuries in area hospitals. Many were there because their parents couldn’t handle them, or they had problems at home.

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.

Many believed reports that the doors at the overcrowded shelter had remained locked even as the fires spread, though authorities say the circumstances are still under investigation.

Vianney Clareth Hernandez was waiting outside a morgue with a photo of her daughter, Ashley, 14, who she was searching for. Ashley was at the shelter but her mother hasn’t found her at local hospitals.

“It was a crime they didn’t open the doors, they didn’t do anything to get the girls out, even though they were screaming,” Hernandez said.

But the real motives and sequence of events may never be known for sure; Castillo said Kimberly had testified to police that the girls who started the fire were among those who died in the blaze. And the few surviving girls at the hospital were placed under police guard Friday for their own protection as witnesses.

Other grieving families began receiving the bodies of girls whose remains had been identified.

The shelter outside Guatemala City held some 800 children and mixed victims of abuse or dysfunctional homes with youthful offenders.

“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 neighbourhood 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 gang members killed her mother for not paying extortion when the girl was 3 years old, said her grandmother, Maria Antonia Garcia. Her father had not been involved in her life.

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.”

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This story earlier corrected the spelling of Madelyn.

Sonia Perez D. And Jose Lopez, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Guatemala fire death toll rises to 36 amid calls for change

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