Guatemala— 40 Girls and Young Women Burned to Death

GUATEMALA. On March 8, hundreds of children and teenagers mutinied in the “Safe Home of the Virgin of the Assumption.” The response of the Guatemalan state led to the deaths of 40 young girls and teenagers.

The state, servant and protector of the interests of capital, is not the only one to blame for this massacre. The capitalist system put them in that horrible place.

The “Safe Home” is a “shelter” for minors who have been linked to gangs, forced into prostitution, were victims of domestic violence, or who were abandoned by their parents at birth.

All the things that have led the youth to this place are economic and social. All have their roots in the capitalist system. It divides the working class, pushing sexism and racism, which leads to violence against our class, especially against girls and women.

This “home” functions like a jail for minors. It is a hell for those that live there. People have known for years that rape is committed inside there, as well as other kinds of physical and psychological mistreatment.

The infrastructure is deplorable. This place has the capacity for 500 youth but, until the riot, 800 girls, boys and teenagers lived there. The bathrooms are in a terrible state. Some don’t have doors. This generates fear in the youth, making them vulnerable to one more rape.

The riot happened because of all the above and much more. About 80 youth managed to escape but later they were recaptured and returned by the police to the “home.” They were brutally beaten and locked up.

In one of the modules there were 50 to 60 girls. Some of them, filled with anger, began to burn mattresses. A youth from the other module reported that from early in the morning he smelled something burning. The youth from the other module managed to knock down the door and ran to try to help their friends. But the police stopped them and began to attack them. They let the girls die.

They died fighting. The conditions in which they lived were unbearable and they decided to fight to change this. It is our responsibility to organize the youth to liberate themselves from the evils that sexist, racist capitalism forces them to endure. Young people are crucial in mobilizing for and building communist society where no girl or boy will be forced to live in this kind of hell,. They will be part of a new education far from these oppressive walls where we will learn collectively in the processes of production.

The international working class has historically been attacked by the interests of the capitalists. The conditions of poverty, sexism, racism, violence and exploitation to which we are subjected provide a gloomy picture for the new generations. The youth who have been linked to gangs, drugs, or who are abandoned usually come from families in which the parents have had to emigrate in search for their survival.

The victory of communism is the only thing that will insure that the material bases of these sexist and oppressive events never again exist. By building a society in which we collectively organize all aspects of life, each one of us will be part of a family. No human being will be forgotten or exposed to practices that endanger their life and that of others.

Like in El Mozote (where the Salvadoran army murdered 800 people in 1981), Ayotzinapa (where the Mexican army “disappeared” and killed 43 protesting students in 2014), and Tlatelolco (where the Mexican government massacred an estimated 300 protesting students in 1968), these 40 girls and teenagers will not be forgotten. It is our duty as communists to make those responsible pay and to forge a world where this will never happen again.

Comrades in Los Angeles and San Diego, USA, bring communist politics to International Women’s Day activities

Posted 3/17/2017
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