Three years after the fire that killed 41 girls in Guatemala

“I don’t want anyone to wish me a Happy Women’s Day on March 8th,” recently said Brendy Cuy Urizar. Elsa Siquín Montafúr doesn’t celebrate this day either. Brendy is the aunt of Yohanna and Elsa the mother of Yemmi; two of the 41 girls who died in the ‘Safe House’ fire in Guatemala on March 8th, 2017.

El Confidencial – 16th of March 2020

© Frauke Decoodt. Una mujer llega a hacer una ceremonia dentro del altar para las niñas en el Parque Central frente al palacio presidencial. Guatemala 2020
© Frauke Decoodt. Una mujer llega a hacer una ceremonia dentro del altar para las niñas en el Parque Central frente al palacio presidencial. Guatemala 2020

Article originally written in Spanish and published in various media on 8th of March.

Translated by / Continue to read on: El Confidencial

Continue reading “Three years after the fire that killed 41 girls in Guatemala”

Living on the edge of the abyss

Independent from the Occupy Movement in North-America and Europe, a movement of slum dwellers in Guatemala is occupying the street in front of Congress. They are protesting against the living conditions in the slums and a disfunctional housing policy. To change their situation they not only occupied Congress but made a bill and eventually started a hunger strike.

Kids in the slum Juan Pablo II, Guatemala City, By Anonymous, 2008

Continue reading “Living on the edge of the abyss”