Colombia shaken after wealthy architect charged with kidnapping, slaying of 7-year-old

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[Photo Source: ConfidencialColombia.com]

Like thousands of other Colombians stricken by war, the indigenous family had fled violence and poverty in their rural province, seeking better opportunities in the country’s capital. They moved to a poor neighborhood north of Bogotá, its small tin-roof homes providing a stark contrast to the luxurious apartments just a few blocks away.

It was here, in front of the family’s home, where a 7-year-old girl was playing Sunday just before a man allegedly grabbed her by the hands, pulling her into his gray truck. Her 9-year old cousin tried to stop him, and relatives came rushing out of the home when they heard the commotion, but it was too late, the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo reported.

At 7:30 p.m. that night, her body was found in a nearby upscale apartment, where she was sexually abused, tortured and strangled to death, authorities say. Police arrested Rafael Uribe Noguera, a 38-year-old wealthy architect, charging him in connection with the kidnapping and slaying of the girl, Yuliana Andrea Samboni.

The slaying of the 7-year-old rattled the South American nation, sparking angry protests, exposing Colombia’s troubling rates of violence against women, and uncovering the stark divides between the rich and poor in its capital city.

As the alleged perpetrator, Uribe Noguera, spent Monday receiving treatment for what authorities said was a cocaine overdose, dozens of protesters gathered outside shouting and holding signs with the words “murderer” and “justice for Yuliana.” A candlelight vigil was held later in a plaza, where hundreds carried flowers and messages of solidarity, many wearing shirts with the phrase #medueleBogotá, or “Bogotá hurts.”

Neighbors gathered outside the family’s humble home with its peeling exterior, in a neighborhood “where poverty and wealth are separated by an avenue,” wrote journalist Vanessa De La Torre Sanclemente in an opinion article in El Pais. “To get there you have to enter unpaved streets, climb a mountain and wonder how the misery and wealth can share almost the same blocks in a city.”

An array of letters, photos, flowers and posters – including one reading “no more violence or abuse of our boys and girls” – was on display in front of the family’s home.

“She is a girl with scarce resources who has been abused and murdered by a person who has studied and has had all the opportunities in the world,” one woman told El Espectador as she stood outside the home.

At Yuliana’s funeral Monday, her father lay his hand on her coffin, bowing his head as rose petals fell from the funeral home’s fifth floor, El Tiempo reported. Her parents “came to look for a better life here and look what happens to them. For that and more, we demand justice,” the family’s neighbor, Nexy Sanchez, said at the funeral.

The family fled the country’s southwestern Cauca province, where thousands have been killed or driven from their homes, and the FARC guerrillas in recent years functioned as a shadow state, demanding loyalty by force, The Washington Post reported.

On a national level, the country is finally on the cusp of concluding its 52-year conflict – Latin America’s longest war – which has left at least 220,000 dead and driven 7 million people from their homes. Last week, Colombia’s congress approved a historic peace deal with the country’s largest rebel group, raising hopes that an end is near.

But beyond the long-awaited peace, Yuliana’s slaying revealed what one official called “one of the greatest ills that the country suffers” – sexual violence directed at minors and women. As many as 40 children are raped every day in Colombia, the Associated Press reported.

And in 2016, as of Oct. 31, more than 18,000 cases of sexual violence among boys and girls had been reported nationwide, according to Carlos Valdez, director of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Science. In an interview with local press, he said a “macho and aggressive culture” exists in all of Latin America, and is a phenomenon of particular concern in Colombia.

The 7-year-old’s death also brought to light the issue of femicide, or the killing of a woman by a man because of her gender. On average, one woman is killed every two days in Colombia, and Latin America overall has the highest femicide rates in the world, Reuters reported last year. A new Colombian law came into effect in July 2015 making femicide a legally defined crime, with jail sentences of 20 to 41 years.

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos joined a growing movement on Twitter with the hashtag #NiUnaMas, or “Not one more,” a call to ensure that not one more woman or girl dies as a result of gender-based violence. With “profound indignation,” he condemned the alleged crime and wrote, “Let the full weight of justice fall on those responsible.”

Hundreds across Colombia and beyond it also protested the slaying on Twitter, using the additional hashtag #TodosSomosYuliana, or “We are all Yuliana.”

Uribe Noguera, the man arrested for Yuliana’s killing, was charged with aggravated femicide, in addition to “simple abduction, violent carnal access and torture,” the BBC reported.

Authorities say that Uribe Noguera and at least one other person tried to cover up the crime scene in the luxurious apartment where the girl’s body was found. The apartment, where he occasionally lived, belongs to the suspect’s family, police said.

In a statement published in several local news outlets, Uribe Noguera’s family members expressed their deep regret over the girl’s death.

“Faced with this tragedy that engulfs two families of good, we are aware that Rafael must assume the drastic consequences that come from his inexplicable action,” the statement read. “We, as a family, can not turn our backs on these moments of anguish, confusion and pain.”

(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Samantha Schmidt

[Photo Source: ConfidencialColombia.com]
[Photo Source: ConfidencialColombia.com]

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