Reporting
Recalling the Guatemala Orphanage Fire
Feb. 8, 2018 | Guatemala City | Activists and family members of victims perform a Mayan ceremony at the Plaza de la Constitución for the estimated 41 girls that were killed in a fire at a state-run youth shelter last year.
The tragedy occurred on March 8, 2017, when, according to a report in the Washington Post, boys and girls were locked inside separate rooms at the “Virgen de la Asunción,” or Virgin of the Assumption, orphanage near Guatemala’s capital city as punishment for organizing a protest and trying to escape cramped conditions and abuse by staff. A mattress in the room where girls were locked was somehow set on fire. Survivors say they pleaded to be released from the burning room, but were ignored. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 8, 2018 | Guatemala City | A couple walks past a poster of Indira Jarisa Pelico, who was killed in the March 8, 2017, youth shelter fire. Guatemala has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. According to UNICEF, the country’s homicide rate is a reflection of its lack of prevention programs and meaningful employment options for adolescents. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 10, 2018 | Guatemala City | “It’s difficult to know what happened,” says cemetery worker Romero Sanun, who buried six girls in this block of General Cemetery. “In my work it is normal to see so many dead people in one day,” says Sanun, who has worked at the cemetery for 19 years. “I’m accustomed to it.”(LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 10, 2018 | San José Pinula, Guatemala | The Virgen de la Asuncion orphanage closed soon after the 2017 fire, sending hundreds of youth to other state run facilities. Though numbers vary, the overcrowded shelter housed about 700 boys and girls, despite the fact that it was built to lodge around 350 youths.(LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 15, 2018 | Guatemala City, Guatemala | Angely Hernandez, 14, lost her sister Madelyn who was a year older than her at the time of the youth shelter fire. She now helps her grandmother at the market where her sister used to work. Angely also lived at the shelter at the time of the fire but was in a different room for younger girls. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 10, 2018 | San José Pinula, Guatemala | Several pathways surrounding the Virgen de la Asunción orphanage served as hiding spots for youth that escaped the shelter. The Guatemalan government had received reports of ill treatment, including sexual abuse, alongside recommendations to close the shelter, yet it remained open. Widespread issues of overcrowding and lack of care at the facility that housed at-risk youth contributed to why many children tried to escape. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 10, 2018 | San José Pinula, Guatemala | A patched up hole at the Virgen de la Asunción orphanage serves as a tragic reminder of the ways youth tried to escape the compound. Since the fire, three people, including Guatemala’s former social welfare minister and the former director of the shelter, have been charged with negligent homicide, according to the Guardian. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 10, 2018 | San José Pinula, Guatemala | On the outskirts of the Guatemalan capital, the road that leads to the state-run youth facility is surrounded by forests. Local residents recall the foliage serving as hiding spots for youth that escaped from the shelter. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)February 15, 2018 |
Guatemala City, Guatemala | Estelita Urias, 33, is pictured with her children in her one-room apartment. Urias says she was very close to her younger sister Mayra, who was 16 when she was killed in the fire. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 10, 2018 | San José Pinula, Guatemala | A grassy knoll sits near the state-run youth facility where many children hid after trying to escape cramped conditions and alleged abuse by staff. According to local news reports, police rounded up youth at 10 p.m. on March 7, 2017, and brought them back to the shelter, eventually locking the girls in one room and the boys in the gym as punishment. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 15, 2018 | Guatemala City, Guatemala | Rodolfo Tello, a human rights lawyer for Fundacion Sobreviventes, is in charge of the cases for 27 of the more than 40 girls who died in the 2017 fire. “We want justice for negligence because the authorities don’t have the capacity to take care of the kids,” Tello says. “We want to transform the system of welfare for kids because the current system failed.” (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 10, 2018 | San José Pinula, Guatemala | A view of the surrounding neighborhood near the Virgen de la Asunción orphanage. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 15, 2018 | Guatemala City, Guatemala | Dominga Castro lost her daughter Estefany, who was 15 at the time of the fire. Since the fire, Dominga has suffered from depression. “I don’t have the energy to do things,” she says. “I am not the same person and I feel very lonely at home.” Castro says she received some psychological counseling in the first three months following the fire, but “Now, nobody asks how I feel.” Estefany was only in the shelter for 15 days but participated in the protest. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 15, 2018 | Guatemala City, Guatemala | An image of Mayra Urias, who was 16 when she died in the fire. The shelter housed a wide range of youth, from victims of sexual abuse to those who were fleeing the influence of gangs. Some youth were considered rebellious or runaways. Many came from poor families that could not afford sufficient housing. (LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)
Feb. 10, 2018 | San José Pinula, Guatemala | Views of the neighborhood surrounding the Virgen de la Asunción orphanage. Following the fire, protests, and campaigns sprouted throughout Guatemala to end violence against women and girls. The country has one of the world’s highest rates of femicide, according to one advocacy group. Meanwhile, inadequate financial support for Guatemalan families with disabled children helps contribute to the institutionalization of boys and girls in the country, according to another group.
Reporting for this story was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation as part of its Adelante Latin America Reporting Initiative.
(LIANNE MILTON/PANOS PICTURES/INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MEDIA FOUNDATION)