Uruguay closes teen care home after openDemocracy reveals neglect
Uruguay’s child welfare agency cut ties with the centre after we exposed brutality, abuse and sexual exploitation
Uruguay’s child protection agency has ended its contract with a care home for teenagers struggling with mental health issues after openDemocracy revealed that minors at the centre were subjected to neglect, violence and chaotic management.
During the course of our investigation, the Uruguayan Institute for Children and Adolescents (INAU), did not respond to openDemocracy’s questions.
But shortly after our report was published in late July, we learned it had quietly decided to close the Himalaya Specialised Mental Health Transitional Centre and began relocating adolescents living there to other care homes. INAU did not respond to our new questions about the centre’s closure.
The scandal at the Himalaya centre was also mentioned during a special parliamentary hearing on 15 August, when senators from the opposition Frente Amplio coalition (Broad Front, FA) questioned INAU officials about the agency’s relationship with the centre.
Senators praised openDemocracy for shining a light on the neglect that many already-vulnerable children in Uruguay experience in state care, and the harm they are caused by the country’s slow, unyielding bureaucracy.
“We used your investigation to prepare for the hearing, as it contained crucial information,” Silvia Nane, the FA senator leading the questioning in Parliament, told openDemocracy.
She added: “The centre should have been closed long before the publication. INAU should have conducted thorough follow-ups on the teens and monitored what was happening inside.”
Angelina de los Santos
The Himalaya centre, which was run by the Ave Fénix Foundation – a private organisation owned by an influential Uruguayan family – began receiving teenagers referred by the state agency in November 2022. Soon after, problems with its leadership emerged.
openDemocracy revealed that during a brutal police raid at the centre in January 2023, three adolescents were violently arrested. One of them, Sebastián Silva (fictional name), was struck by 31 rubber bullets, leaving painful scars across his arm and back and causing him physical and mental trauma that, he says, will never go away. Two of his fellow teen inmates, both girls, were also assaulted during the raid.
We also found that in the 18 months since Sebastián was assaulted, the centre has faced accusations of a staff member sexually assaulting two girls and four adolescents being sexually exploited during unauthorised trips out. Its operator, the Ave Fénix Foundation, was also allegedly violating its contract with INAU by failing to hire qualified personnel or upkeep the centre to a safe and habitable standard. The INAU was paying the foundation for three times the number of minors that were actually receiving care at the centre.
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In a quiet, tense hearing in the Uruguayan Senate, Senator Nane questioned the INAU board.
The session was prompted by news last month of the death of a 16-year-old who was under INAU’s care in the north of the country. The girl was pregnant and died during a caesarean-section, with local journalists having revealed that she and other girls in the same care home were being sexually exploited.
Nane started the parliamentary hearing by describing a devastating reality for children and teenagers in care. She cited openDemocracy’s investigation as an example of the apathy INAU has demonstrated in recent years and posed specific questions about the Himalaya centre and its contract, but received no answer from the INAU board.
“Ending the contract with the foundation is an administrative measure. The real issue is how they will address everything that happened before and how they will restore the rights of the adolescents who have already suffered,” Nane told openDemocracy.
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