Guatemala convicts 6 former officials in the 2017 deaths of 41 girls in
a state facility fire
[August 13, 2025]
By SONIA PÉREZ D.
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan judge on Tuesday convicted six former
officials in connection with the deaths of 41 girls in a 2017 fire at a
facility for at-risk youth that had a history of abuse. The six had all
pleaded not guilty.
Judge Ingrid Cifuentes handed down cumulative sentences of between six
years and 25 years for charges ranging from manslaughter to abuse of
authority. She also ordered the investigation of former President Jimmy
Morales for his role in ordering police to work at the facility housing
minors who had not committed any crimes.
Prosecutors had requested sentences of up to 131 years for some of the
suspects, who were all former government workers, including several
whose duties included protecting children.
Emily del Cid Linares, 25, a survivor of the fire who suffered burns,
said she was satisfied with the verdict.
“I feel like a weight has been lifted from me,” she said. “What I most
feel is that they (the victims) will be able to rest in peace. (Those
responsible) are going to pay for what they did.”
Former Social Welfare Secretary Carlos Rodas was sentenced to 25 years
in prison.
Earlier, Rodas told those gathered in the courtroom, including relatives
of the victims, that he had not caused “any harm to their daughters and
the survivors.”
Also among those convicted was ex-police officer Lucinda Marroquín, who
held the key to the room where the girls were locked up and didn’t open
it when the fire started. She was sentenced to 13 years.
The judge said that through phone records, investigators were able to
establish that at the time of the fire, Marroquín was talking on her
phone and when told about the blaze, a witness testified that she
responded with profanity and said “let them burn.”
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Relatives of the 41 girls killed in a fire at a government-run
facility for at-risk girls in 2017, embrace in a courtroom during a
hearing for seven people accused of responsibility, in Guatemala
City, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
A former government prosecutor assigned to the protection of
children was acquitted.
On March 8, 2017, a girl at the Virgen de la Asuncion Safe Home —
located 14 miles (22 kilometers) east of Guatemala City — lit a foam
mattress on fire in the room where a group of girls had been locked
up for hours without access to a bathroom. Smoke and flames quickly
filled the room, killing 41 girls and injuring 15.
About 700 children — no one had exact numbers — lived at the
facility, which had a maximum capacity for 500. The majority had
committed no crime. They were sent there by the courts for various
reasons — they had run away or were abused, or were migrants.
The night before the fire, a group of girls had escaped. Hours
later, the police returned them to the home. They were locked in a
room that had no access to a bathroom and guarded by police. They
were given foam mattresses to sleep on.
After hours of demanding to be let out, one girl lit the fire.
Cifuentes said that the fire was the culmination of a series of
abuses, some of which had been reported to authorities, but not
acted on. She said autopsies confirmed the presence of drugs in some
of the girls, which supported their complaints that they were given
sleeping pills. The pills were among the reasons they had tried to
escape the facility.
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