Submitted by crinadmin on
HRW's summary of the publication
Thousands of children living in Guatemala's streets face routine
beatings, thefts, and sexual assaults at the hands of private
security guards and the National Police. More serious crimes
against street children, including assassination and torture,
havelessened since their heyday in the early 1990s, but do still
occur. In April 1996, sixteen-year-old Susana Gómez was raped
by two National Police officers while a third kept watch. In
September 1996, sixteen-year-old Ronald Raúl Ramos was shot
and killed by a Treasury Police officer. More than ten other street
children were murdered in 1996 under suspicious circumstances.
As of April 1997, all of the perpetrators in these cases remained
at large. While three convictions for murders of street children
handed down in late 1996 and early 1997 represent significant
and encouraging news, hundreds of other cases involving crimes
against street children remain stalled; most are never even
investigated. Crimes against street children are a low priority for
policeinvestigators, particularly when a fellow officer is implicated.
In contrast, juvenile offenders, and even non-offenders, are dealt
with harshly. "Juvenile justice" in Guatemala suffers from multiple
and severe defects, rendering it less than justice and little more
than warehousing. Street children are arrested and locked-up
arbitrarily, sometimes merely for being homeless, other times for
such vague"offenses" as "creating a public scandal," or
"loitering." Children in detention receive no meaningful
rehabilitation, education, psychological treatment or vocational
training. They are crowded together in unsanitary conditions and
are mistreated by unqualified staff all in violation of international
standards.