Colombia: Public Aghast After Rape, Acid Attack Against Toddler

The rape and acid attack against a three-year-old girl has shocked Colombia after the toddler was found abandoned outside a clandestine nursery for the children of sex workers.

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"A man left her in the hospital and disappeared; we are already with the family attending to the girl's condition and the authorities are searching for the person who left the girl in the hospital," said Cundinamarca Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) Director Diana Arboleda.

Several skull fractures, signs of beating across her body, genital injuries consistent with sexual abuse, and acid burns on her back and chest were listed among the girl's injuries, ICBF reports. She is currently being treated in Santa Clara Hospital's Intensive Care Unit.

Enrique Peñalosa, mayor of Bogota, wrote on his Twitter account: "Doctors from Santa Clara Hospital do their best to save your life. We reject this and all the violence against girls and young people. I ask God for her recovery. We will capture the criminal."

In a statement Friday, Deputy Attorney General Maria Paulina Riveros said: "The investigators conducted an inspection of the house of the girl's caretaker, who said that the child had fallen down some stairs.

"They made an inspection with forensic lights and found blood samples, which were taken to Legal Medicine to establish if they correspond to the minor."

According to the ICBF director, the young girl was allegedly raped and tortured by her parents after being taken last week from her grandmother's home, where she had been living since 2015.

Police are currently searching for the child's parents. Peñalosa said: "We are deeply hurt by this fact; this is an atrocious crime and we are going to do everything in our power to capture the criminal."

Officials say the child has been returned to her maternal grandmother's custody after authorities decided it was the best place for the toddler.

Over 4,000 minors have fallen victim to abuse since January, the Institute of Legal Medicine reported. Colombian socio-political party the Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation (MIRA) has reported more than 400 cases of sexual abuse against children under the age of four.

"How long are we going to allow our children in Colombia to be exterminated in this way, because so far this year, every day in Colombia, three babies will be sexually abused, and there are more than 400 cases of alleged sexual abuse against those aged up to four years," said MIRA Congresswoman Gloria Stella Diaz.

According to Carlos Eduardo Valdes, director of the Institute of Legal Medicine, sexual violence against minors has increased by 22 percent this year.