Bolivia Child Abuse Case Deepens On New Rape Claims

A second case emerged Thursday from a child care home in Bolivia that is already under investigation for the death of a suspected sexually abused baby.



A complaint filed by the public body that defends child and adolescent rights said a 6-year-old girl who was awaiting adoption was raped earlier this year at the home in La Paz.



The accusation was bolstered by the accounts of two former staff members from the shelter who told a television station of widespread violence against children while producing photographic evidence.



The new claims follow the death last week of eight-month old baby Alexander who succumbed to internal bleeding caused by anal penetration. That case engulfed the country's health sector and public prosecutor as clashing hospital reports muddied the inquiry.



Bolivia's national ombudsman appealed to the medical sector to stop intervening in the case so investigations could find those responsible.



Rolando Villena also said that current children protections laws weren't strong enough to prevent such occurrences.



Alexander was taken from Virgen de Fatima children's shelter to Hospital El Niño in the country's capital with breathing difficulties the shelter said, according to La Razon daily.



Doctors there found that Alexander's temperature was taken rectally, "without sign of violence," serving to relieve the care home of blame.



But statements from doctors at a second hospital, Juan XXIII, where Alexander was transferred, recorded blood up to four days old in his rectum, contradicting the first hospital's findings.



Three Hospital El Niño workers were arrested, prompting an indefinite strike by staff out of solidarity with their detained colleagues.



The president of a Bolivian human rights organization criticized the "weakness" of the public prosecutor's probe.



"This contaminates the possibility of sticking to the true facts and identifying those intellectually or directly responsible, of this horrendous occurrence," Yolanda Herrera of the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights was "ed by El Deber as saying.



Bolivia lacks a robust culture of child rights, observers say.



Though current figures are hard to come by, UNICEF said in 2007 that 80 percent of Bolivian children were physically or verbally punished by an adult in households.



Earlier this year, Bolivia lowered the minimum working age to 10 years from 14, in certain cases.



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