President Gustavo Petro posted a message on social media providing new details about the case of Gail Grant, the American citizen arrested this Sunday after a video circulated that raised suspicions of possible sexual abuse against a 7-year-old boy.
According to the president, the foreigner did not sexually abuse the child, as was initially interpreted based on the viral images.
“The American citizen, originally from Texas, arrested in an apartment in northern Bogotá, apparently did not rape any of his adopted children in Colombia. He took him out onto the balcony because he was choking on food. The images misled Colombians who went en masse to defend the child,” Petro wrote on his X account (formerly Twitter).
Furthermore, he stated that the American had only come to Colombia to adopt the children, ages 5, 7, and 15, who were in the apartment in the Navarra neighborhood, in northern Bogotá. “I have asked that outsourcing at the ICBF end because the state must assume its responsibility to care for children in Colombia when families fail,” he added.
In the Colombian context, the outsourcing of adoption mentioned by Petro refers to a model in which the State, through the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), allows authorized private entities to participate in some stages of the adoption process, instead of the entire procedure being carried out directly by public officials.
Generally speaking, in the country, this process is under the direction and oversight of the ICBF, which is the central authority in this matter.
An hour after the president’s tweet, the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) issued a statement asserting that adoption processes in Colombia are conducted under strict legal standards and that the case of these children is no exception.
The agency explained that the children entered the protection system in 2022 after situations affecting their rights were identified. Subsequently, the administrative authority in charge of the process declared the children eligible for adoption. This decision was reviewed by a judge, who upheld it in accordance with Colombian law.
