Story By: Juan Fenandez Mayes, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
This is the moment Colombian authorities arrest people suspected of abusing children during the lockdown.
The detentions were conducted by the Colombian National Police in coordination with the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation across “22 main cities and 38 municipalities in the country’s 32 departments”, according to a police report released on 2nd October.
There were 47 cases resulting in 147 arrests on charges of acting “against the integrity of minors”, with 30 percent of the suspects being relatives of the victims.
The news of the 47 cases comes amid growing fears that the domestic abuse of women and children increased significantly during lockdown when families were forced to remain home.
The arrests were all made during the Colombian quarantine, that was instated on 24th March. It was initially expected to be lifted on 12th April but was later extended to late August.
The video shows the moment Colombian National Police raid several homes and search the contents of computers and phones as suspects are seen being arrested and taken into custody.
According to the report “53 of those arrested have family ties with the victims”. There are seven fathers, two mothers, fifteen stepfathers, nine cousins and a further 21 people that were grandparents, uncles, siblings or other relatives that lived in the same house as the victims.
It went on to reveal some of the more shocking cases that were thwarted by police.
It included a woman in the city of Cucuta who “taking advantage that they left her nieces aged 7 and 14, under her care, would allow her partner carnally enter the 14-year-old” and would film the act.
Another is a priest from the department of Meta who “through gifts and deceit would manage to sexually abuse an adolescent for three years” who went to his parish.
A woman in the city of Pereira allegedly sold “sexual content of her 14-year-old daughter to a Mexican citizen” and according to investigations “later agreed to meet” in the island of San Andres where “the minor was subjected to various humiliations”.
Other cases included are a man who rented a flat to a family where he filmed a minor when the parents were at work and a suspect who forced a teenage boy to do sexual acts via video calls, after allegedly obtaining nude pictures of him, while passing as an adolescent girl over social media.
A further 15 men and three adolescents were detained for conspiracy to commit the crime of drug trafficking. Another five cases of domestic violence, two thefts and one homicide were reported, however, it does not specify how they are related to crimes against minors.
The National Police have arrested 2,125 people for “crimes affecting the integrity, liberty and sexual formation of the children and adolescents” this year so far.
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