SAFE HOME CASE: The fire in which 41 adolescents died in a shelter in Guatemala for which 6 former officials now condemn prison

A woman holds a photo of a girl and sunflowers during a demonstration to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a fire in a children — Photo foot, In the safe fire 41 minors died and another 15 were left with serious burns.

- Author, Leire sales
- Author's title, BBC News World correspondent in Los Angeles
- X, @leire_ventas
12 August 2025, 20:43 gmt

Updated 1 hour

It was a tragedy that shuddered national and international public opinion and became a symbol of structural failures of the childhood protection system in Guatemala.

On March 8, 2017, a fire in a smaller shelter ended the life of 41 adolescents and left another 15 with serious burns that would mark the rest of their lives.

This Tuesday, the known “Safe Hogar” concluded with prison sentences between 25 and 13 years for six of the defendants, dictated by Judge Ingrid Vanessa Cifuentes, of the Seventh Court of Criminal Judgment of Ciudad de Guatemala, a year and a half after the start of the trial.

The highest sentences were for Santos Torres, former director of the Safe Home, and Carlos Rodas, former secretary of Social Welfare, sentenced to 25 years in jail each.

Brenda Chamán, former head of the Department of Special Protection against the abuse of the Ministry of Social Welfare, and Lucinda Marroquín, former subsequent of the National Civil Police, received 12 -year prison sentences.

For Luis Armando Pérez Borja, former Chief of Operations of the National Civil Police, were 11 years, and 6 for Gloria Castro, former child of the Children of the Prosecutor's Office of Human Rights.

All of them had declared themselves innocent of the charges and asked the magistrate to be acquitted.

Police officers make guard with a sign that says "Sage Virgen de la Asunción home" At the entrance of the children's shelter after 40 girls died in a fire on March 8, in San José Pinula, about 10 kilometers east of Guatemala City, on March 15, 2017. (Photo: Johan Ordonez/AFP through Getty Images) — Photo foot, The case of the safe home became a symbol of the structural failures of the childhood protection system in Guatemala.

“I am very sorry for what happened that day, I am a mother and I would not be able to do what is said here,” said Marroquín, who faced the charges of abuse against minors and guilty homicide.

Castro said for its part that the Prosecutor's Office failed to demonstrate the breach of duties for which he accused her. “A shelter was what we always asked for,” he said.

Both were sentenced to prison sentences, like four of the defendants. Meanwhile, Harold Flores, head of the Minors Attorney's Office of the Attorney General's Office, was acquitted in the absence of evidence of the charges that were imputed to him.

The process began with eight defendants, but Anahí Keller, former Subsecretary of Social Welfare of the Presidency, was separated from the trial after the Constitutional Court (CC) granted him a provisional protection.

Throughout the legal procedure, about 600 documents, 42 expert opinions and 45 testimonies were presented as evidence.

In addition to issuing the sentence, the judge ordered a series of investigations, including one with the objective of clarifying the possible participation of then President Jimmy Morales (2016-2020) in the case.

And convened a fair repair audience for this Thursday, August 14.

The survivors of the tragedy and relatives of victims, who followed the audience without being able to contain the crying, received the ruling with jubilation, as did their legal representatives and support groups present in the room.

Women grab their hands and break into tears during the sentence hearing of the Safe Case, where a fire left on March 8, 2017 41 dead teenagers and 15 with serious burns, in the seventh court in Guatemala City on August 12, 2025. (Photo of Edwin Bercian/AFP through Getty Images) — Photo foot, Survivors and relatives of the victims could not contain the crying during the sentence hearing.

The tragedy

On the morning of March 8, 2017, the day in which International Women's Day was held, there was a fire in the Virgen de la Asunción safe, located in San José Pinula, Guatemala.

The fire would end up causing the death of 41 girls and adolescents, in addition to leaving another 15 minors with serious burns.

The night before, a hundred teenagers had escaped from the place to denounce abuses, ill -treatment and inhuman conditions.

However, they were intercepted by agents of the National Civil Police (PNC) and transferred again to the institution.

According to investigations, the Household authorities, administered by the Ministry of Social Welfare of the Presidency (SBS), decided to enclose 56 adolescents in a classroom of approximately 7 meters by 6 meters, as a measure of punishment. The door remained locked and monitored by PNC agents.

Shirley Palencia cries about her 17 -year -old sister's coffin, Kimberly Mishel Palencia Ortiz, who died in a fire in a state shelter, during the girl's funeral in the general cemetery of the city of Guatemala on March 17, 2017. (Photo: Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images) — Photo foot, The deceased in the Virgen de la Asunción Safe Fire were between 14 and 17 years old.

A subsequent inquiry revealed that girls were not even allowed to leave the living room to go to the bathroom. If they wanted to do their needs, they had to do it in a corner.

In the morning, they were given breakfast in the same dirty room. Desperate to leave, one of the girls lit a phosphorus. The flames spread rapidly.

The girls hit the door damn of panic. But this remained closed for nine minutes.

“That those daughters of the great whore are burned, to see if they are good to escape are fibrudes to leave,” said the police sub -inspector who had the keys, according to the testimony of his subordinates that Judge Cifuentes remembered on Tuesday again.

The magistrate, who before reading the sentence made a chronological review of the facts and the evidence of the case, explained that it was after the call of then President Jimmy Morales, at 3:00 in the morning of March 8, 2017, which a group of police officers arrived at the safe home.

The delay in its release, according to the investigation of the Public Ministry (MP), was decisive for the flames and smoke to cause the tragedy.

A Guatemalan student holds a banner with the name of one of the 40 girls who died in a fire in a state shelter, during a protest demanding justice for the victims, at the University of San Carlos in the city of Guatemala, on March 15, 2017. On paper reads "Ashley Gabriela, 15 years old". (Photo: Johan Ordonez/AFP to Getty Images)

A dark history

The shelter began operating in Platanar, in San José Pinula, 23 kilometers south of Guatemala City, in June 2010, during the presidency of Álvaro Colom.

Then he was the Virgen de la Esperanza solidarity.

But with the relay in the government in 2012, he changed his name of “solidarity” for “safe” and also that of the Virgin who protected him.

They were problems that the authorities in charge attributed at the time in the absence of the budget and the resolutions of the judges, who ordered the internment of minors without taking into account their profile or the overcrowding of the centers.

Some had been mistreated in their homes or had been victims of exploitation or violation. Others had committed some crime and, after serving the sentence, they had nowhere to go.

And to this was added the typical overcrowding of this type of institutions in the country, in which the revolts are frequent.

In that cultivation broth, a series of vexations and abuse took place, according to what the at least 28 complaints received by the Human Rights Attorney's Office between January 2014 and August 2016.

Constant escapes

Judge Ingrid Vannesa Cifuentes, of the Seventh Court of Criminal Judgment of Ciudad de Guatemala, during the hearing of the Safe Hogar Case, where a fire left on March 8, 2017 41 dead adolescents and 15 with serious burns, on August 12, 2025. — Photo foot, Judge Ingrid Vannesa Cifuentes, of the Seventh Criminal Judgment of Ciudad de Guatemala, was in charge of issuing a sentence.

The leaks of the center were so frequent that only between January 2014 and July 2015, the Alba Keneth alert system, a unit of the Attorney General's Office (PGN) in charge of searching and locating missing minors, received 233 reports for “disappearance” in the Virgen de la Asunción safe home.

On December 12, 2016, the judge of the Sixth Court of Children and Adolescents, Silvia Lorena Vásquez Calderón, ordered the “immediate” closure of the Virgen de la Asunción safe home.

He also asked the Public Ministry to investigate the officials in charge of the center to determine if they could have “criminal responsibility” in the abuses occurred there.

The resolution was later appealed by the Secretariat of Social Welfare of the Presidency, and the shelter continued open.

And so it continued until March 8, 2017, when 34 young people died calcined, a figure that would increase to 41 in later days.

With this, the name of the safe home, a place that was never for those who housed it, would be forever associated with the tragedy.