No Fue El Fuego, Fue El Estado! JUSTICE FOR THE FIFTY-SIX GUATEMALAN GIRLS
The popular chant “Not the fire; It was the state” was heard multiple times on March 7 and 8, 2024, in Guatemala City and around Central America, criticizing the state for evading responsibility for the murder of forty-one girls on March 8, 2017. The slogan has become an anthem among feminist groups. The chant reminds us that seven years ago, fifty-six Guatemalan girls were abused by the state for speaking out against the state-operated shelter, Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción, where they were raped, given rotten food, and abused by the shelter’s authorities. Locked into a small room where a fire broke out, the authorities left the screaming girls inside for nine minutes. At the hands of the state, forty-one girls, ages twelve to seventeen died, and fifteen survived with physical and emotional trauma…
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