Tuesday June 23, 2009, 9:37 am
"Next to those ragged holes is a wide metal gate — sealed shut long ago for who knows what reason.

In just over two weeks since the fire at the day care center killed 47 children in Hermosillo, evidence has piled up suggesting a chain of negligence that may have abetted the tragedy. The revelations have led to outrage and, in this culture of widespread corruption and legal impunity, resignation.

Every morning, some 200 babies and toddlers were dropped off at a converted warehouse where a gaily colored tarpaulin passed for a ceiling and small, substandard doors in two cluttered corners served as emergency exits.

The day care center was a firetrap, critics say, and one that had been inspected repeatedly. It passed every time, except once. Last Tuesday, prosecutors reported that the federal authorities had ordered ABC’s owners in 2005 to get rid of the tarp, widen the main entrance and add more emergency exits with regulation fire doors.

Nothing happened. A few months later, the same federal agency that ordered the changes renewed its contract with the center. And without having made the needed repairs, the center continued to pass inspections."

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