Probe cites rampant sexual and physical abuse at Guatemala mental hospital

GUATEMALA CITY Human rights groups say they found hundreds of women and children subjected to sexual and physical abuse at a public psychiatric hospital in Guatemala's capital.

The Human Rights Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala led an investigation by groups including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Disability Rights International. Executive director Segun Nery Rodenas said Friday that the probe found patients in the Federico Mora hospital suffering from a lack of medical attention, along with abuse by staff and inmates from a neighboring prison who were allowed into the hospital. The commission called for Guatemala to swiftly address conditions in the hospital.

Investigators found more than 300 children in solitary confinement, and patients in locked cells who died of preventable diseases due to lack of medical attention.