A Locked Door, a Fire and 41 Girls Killed as Police Stood By

Azam Ahmed - New York Times

This article from the New York Times tells the story of the fire at the Hogar Seguro group home in Guatemala in 2017, which killed 41 girls. The article not only describes the incident, but the larger "pattern of physical, psychological and sexual abuse allegations at the facility stretching back for years."

"Six children had previously died in the government-run home from 2012 through 2015," says the article, "mostly from preventable health-related complications, officials said. The authorities are also looking into 25 episodes of abuse reported in the year before the fire. Beyond that, several girls had told their relatives well before the tragedy that they were forced to have sex with older strangers, according to interviews with members of three different families."

According to Marwin Bautista, an under secretary in the Ministry of Social Welfare:

This was a failure in the institution. And to be honest, it didn’t just happen. It was the terrible result of years of neglect and problems.