Colombians protest over rape, killing of 7-year-old girl

BOGOTA – Hundreds of angry Colombians are taking to the streets to protest the kidnapping and rape of a 7-year-old girl found strangled in an upper-class Bogota apartment.

Police said Monday that security cameras captured the moment the girl was snatched while playing outside her home in a poor neighbourhood by a man driving a truck.

As many as 40 children are raped every day in Colombia. But the killing has resonated because of the huge class divide separating the girl and the alleged perpetrator, an architect from one of Bogota’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.

A group of 50 protesters shouting “rapist” and “murderer” spent the day outside the clinic where the suspect allegedly checked himself in for a cocaine overdose. A much-larger candlelight vigil was held in a plaza.