History of Guatemala
Guatemala is a small country located on the southern part of North America and borders with Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. As of July 2016, Guatemala has a population of approximately 15,000,000 people, and is 109,000 sq km in size. Since Guatemala is so close to the equator the climate is primarily hot, humid, and tropical. Guatemala's location makes it more susceptible to earthquakes, hurricanes, tropical storms and volcanoes. The majority of Guatemalans speak Spanish, however, there are approximately 23 recognized languages located in the country. Guatemala is also considered a developing country when it comes to health and infrastructure. Half of the country's population is made up of people under the age of 19 with the median age being 21.5.
The Event
On March 8, 2017, devastation hit a small town just outside of Guatemala City when there was an unexpected fire at a youth shelter called Virgen de Asuncion. Some of the youth who were staying in the shelter started a riot as the shelter was overpopulated with poor food quality, bad living conditions and some of the youth were experiencing different types of abuse including sexual abuse. The maximum capacity of the shelter was 400, however, the authorities believe there was around 800 in the house at the time of the fire. Approximately 40 females were taken to hospital with both second and third degree burns to their bodies and the death toll has gone up to 41 youth under the age of 18. A lot of the bodies are so badly burnt that they are unable to be identified. The investigators are currently doing some DNA tests to figure out the identities of who the females were.
The shelter housed mostly females who have been through abuse, homelessness, or who have finished juvenile detention and have nowhere else to go. The women who started the riot had attempted to break out the night before but when they were caught, they were locked up in a dormitory. The next day, they set the mattress ablaze which ripped through the facility in minutes.
The Aftermath
A week after the fire, on March 14th, three former government officials were arrested: The former shelter director, Santos Torres, the former social welfare secretary, Carlos Rodas, and the former deputy secretary, Anahi Keller. They were arrested because there was suspicion that the women might have been locked in the shelter when the fire broke out. The former government members who were arrested are being accused of negligence, wrongful death, and mistreatment of minors. The judge who is taking care of the case has made it so that the shelter workers can not leave the country.
Authorities are still having some difficulties identifying the victims of the fire. One family was told that their daughter had passed away in the fire. When they received their daughter's body back, with the death certificate, they realized that it was not the right person, as the body had tattoos, and this family's daughter never had any tattoos. They later found out that their daughter was in fact still alive.
Sources
https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...k/geos/gt.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...309-story.html
http://www.dw.com/en/guatemala-shelt...rls/a-37862583
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39214223
Log in (
Safety Zone
Hotlines
Alternatives
Calendar
