Murder of 11 month old baby boy becomes national tragedy

The body of 11 month old Luis Santiago Lozano was found this morning in Chia, a town very close to Bogotá. The baby had been kidnapped six days ago and the person who ordered and paid for his disappearance was his own father Orlando Pelayo. He gave 500.000COP (about 230 USD) to Martha Lucia Garzón so she would steal the child from its mother’s home. She was captured by police yesterday and is being accused of kidnap. As for the father, the Attorney Generals Office believes he murdered the baby, probably asphyxiating him. He was found wrapped in a plastic bag in the place Pelayo told the Attorney General’s Office he had abandoned the baby. As for Garzón, she declared that she had only kidnapped the child and then handed him over to his father.
Colombian Attorney General Mario Iguarán asked for a sentence of 60 years in prison for the two people responsible for this abominable crime. This has also revived the debate in the Colombian Congress today about approving a system that will punish any kind of child maltreat more severely. Some are even asking that people who commit crimes against children might be sentenced to life in prison.