Fire engulfs Lima drug rehab center

Tucked away in a narrow alley - and looking like just another home in San Juan de Lurigancho, the most populous district of Lima, Cristo es Amor - was in fact one of the over 100 drug rehabilitation centers that currently operate in the Peruvian capital without the necessary permits or sanitary oversight, according to Health Ministry estimates.

Last Saturday, a fire broke out inside the clinic and caused the death of 27 people through smoke inhalation. Not since 2002 had there been such a deadly blaze in Lima.

According to the police's version of events, the fire broke out during a fight between inpatients, who set fire to mattresses. They were unable to escape because they had been locked in. The blaze eventually reached a gas canister, and the heavy smoke asphyxiated the victims. One of the deceased was a painter, who was working on a mural inside the premises.

Several survivors, who were interviewed by Peruvian news outlets, described the clinic as being overcrowded, and said that it didn't meet the requirements for dignified treatment. All the victims of the fire were on the first floor, where relapsing patients and the hardest cases were housed; those who happened to be on the second floor were able to jump to safety.

The tragedy has underscored the poor conditions of many of these assistance centers. Carmen Masías, head of Devida, Peru's anti-drug agency, notes that the country has a significant shortage of treatment centers. No fewer than 60,000 Peruvians suffer from some form of addiction, but the state only has 700 available beds for them. This, says Masías, is fertile ground for private clinics that mostly operate outside government control and where nobody guarantees proper conditions for the inpatients. The Health Ministry says that in Lima alone, just 32 of the more than 150 existing private clinics have official operating permits.

Cristo es Amor was one of the centers that operated under the radar. According to authorities in San Juan de Lurigancho, it had already been shut down twice in the past, yet it continued to operate without a license. Its founder is an ex-convict and former drug addict named Edgar Raúl García Albornoz, who goes by the name of Hermano Raúl (Brother Raúl). Patients' relatives said that they paid weekly fees starting at 40 soles (around 13 euros), an insignificant amount that seems insufficient to finance a person's treatment or even proper accommodation. Yet García Albornoz's business seemed to be booming, since he had been open for the last five years and continued to accept new patients. Some relatives said that the patients were mistreated and beaten; others claim that they were often locked up for days on end.

"It was a den of death," said Lima Mayor Susana Villarán.

While the investigation continues, the police have arrested García Albornoz, who showed up at police headquarters on Sunday voluntarily in the company of his lawyers to provide his version of events. He could face charges of voluntary manslaughter. One of the deceased is his own son, Rául García López.

"My son lived there with his partner," said Roxanna López, García Albornoz's ex-wife, the daily La República reported. "Edgar was with him until 20 minutes before the tragedy, and then he left all the interns locked up inside."