Five Years in Hell: Beatings and Threats Silenced Elderly People in a Nursing Home in SLP

Grandparents with open wounds over scars, bruises, and abrasions were some of the findings the State Civil Protection Coordination found when they entered the Santa Sofía Residence in San Luis Potosí (SLP) to rescue 10 elderly people. Relatives report that the elderly, who had been in the nursing home for more than five years, were also mistreated, sedated, and forced to keep quiet about these abuses.

In the photographs shared by Civil Protection, an elderly man can be seen with an open wound on his arm, several millimeters thick, conspicuous by the red tissue that has not healed. Next to it, a significant abrasion and what appears to be a scratch over an old scar can be seen.

Relatives of Leonela “N,” one of the rescued grandmothers, told the newspaper Pulso de San Luis about the horrors her mother endured in the supposed retirement home. Her daughter claimed that the nursing home staff gave the elderly people pills to keep them asleep and forced them to keep quiet about the abuse.

She recounted that during years of visits to the nursing home, her mother appeared with bruises and other abrasions, but claimed she had fallen, when in fact she was mistreated by the center’s staff, a former employee of the “Specialized Center for Comprehensive Health for the Elderly” later confirmed.

Complaints about the mistreatment of the elderly at the nursing home have reached the authorities, as relatives claim the state government failed to report the transfer of the 10 elderly people. Luz Bocanegra reported that the transfer of her 88-year-old mother, Cándida Rodríguez, who had been a resident at the nursing home for more than five years, was plagued by irregularities.

The woman reported that she was not officially notified of the center’s eviction and was not informed of her mother’s new whereabouts. She added that authorities have obstructed her removal.