(20 Jul 2014) Mexican authorities on Saturday began to remove children and adults from a shelter raided for alleged abuse in the western state of Michoacan.
On Tuesday, federal police and soldiers raided The Great Family home in the city of Zamora and arrested nine caretakers, including the 79-year-old woman who founded it.
Federal officials said the police raid found six babies, 154 girls, 278 boys, 50 women and 109 men living in filthy conditions and going hungry.
Michoacan state Governor Salvador Jara said 48 children left the home on Friday for Guadalajara in neighbouring Jalisco state, where they came from.
He said another 19 children could leave for the same destination on Saturday or Sunday.
Other residents have been transferred to Guanajuato or Mexico state.
Zamora Mayor Rosa Hilda Abascal told reporters on Saturday her town couldn't take the responsibility for the residents removed from the property.
Last year, parents began complaining to authorities that they couldn't visit their children at the home.
Residents told investigators there were rapes, sexual abuse, beatings and children were held against their will for years.
The shelter's founder, Rosa del Carmen Verduzco, known as Mama Rosa, raised thousands of children in the group home.
She cultivated patrons among Mexico's political and intellectual elites, and was visited by presidents and renowned writers.
The country's child-protection agency referred many of the children to the home after their parents said they were financially or emotionally unable to care for them.
Funding was a mix of private donations and public money.
Inspections apparently were lax or non-existent.
The revelations spawned disgust and horror, but also a rush to Mama Rosa's defence by supporters who include some of Mexico's most respected intellectuals and some of the very children who say they were mistreated at her facility.
The outpouring of support appears based on the belief that Verduzco was not complicit in any abuse, even if her age and declining health stopped her from correctly overseeing the home.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
