ICBF rescued two children who were mistreated by their mother - Barranquilla - Colombia

The 11-month-old child victim of physical abuse by his mother, in the middle of a public thoroughfare in a neighborhood in the south of Barranquillaare currently under the protection of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (Icbf).

(Also: Video: outrage in Barranquilla for a woman who beats a child under 11 months)

The little boy, along with his seven-year-old sister who also has signs of abuse, was separated from his mother by units of the Police Group for Children and Adolescents, after learning of the complaint.

The case was made public, after residents of the La Sierrita neighborhood sector were alerted when they saw the woman beating the little boy in the middle of a public thoroughfare.

“Stop, walk!” the woman yelled at the child. To which his own neighbors responded: “Call the Police! You are going to kill him! Do not spoil it like that ”, was heard in the video, before the crying of the victim.

HELP!
Humiliated, outraged and beaten. It is urgent that @FiscaliaCol @ICBFColombia arrest the person responsible for such brutal child abuse. In wasap they affirm that she was in the La Sierrita neighborhood of Barranquilla. I do not know if it is true, but where it has been, it is urgent to protect the baby. #MPHP pic.twitter.com/Qe0eMT2LpH

— Jose Granados Fdz. (@JoseGranadosF) February 19, 2022

The scene was recorded with a cell phone and uploaded to social networks, which generated the indignation of many people and provoked the immediate reaction of the Police, through the Group for the Protection of Children and Adolescents.

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“The minor and a sister, 7 years old, were separated from their family nucleus for the restitution of rights and left at the disposal of the ICBF”, said the operational commander of the Barranquilla Metropolitan Police, Lieutenant Colonel Luis Sandoval.

He added that the Children and Adolescents Group had carried out a process against the parents of these minors, after the girl evaded the family nucleus and invited the citizens to take care of the children and adolescents.

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To its turn the director of the ICBF in the Atlantic, Benjamín Collantesaid that the house where the children were was located, and they were taken to zonal centers, to start an administrative process to restore the rights of the children.

Collante explained that at this time the complaints about the children’s mother, whom witnesses accuse of being a consumer of hallucinogenic substances, are being verified. It is also evaluated whether there are guarantees in the family environment to return the minors, otherwise, “an adoption process will begin.”

The director of the ICBF in the Atlantic does not rule out that the Prosecutor’s Office file a criminal complaint for the damage caused to the health of the little brothers.

BARRANQUILLA

Top Scientist Mistreated Staff, Apologizes

WASHINGTON — 

A White House review found credible evidence that top scientist Dr. Eric Lander violated its “Safe and Respectful Workplace Policy,” but the administration plans to keep him on the job after giving him counseling.

An internal review last year, prompted by a workplace complaint, found evidence that Lander, the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and science adviser to President Joe Biden, bullied staffers and treated them disrespectfully. That put him at odds with Biden’s day-one directive that he expected “honesty and decency” from all who worked for his administration and would fire anyone who shows disrespect to others “on the spot.”

The White House said senior administration officials had met with Lander about his actions and management of the office. It said Lander and OSTP are required to take certain corrective actions as part of the review.

“White House leadership met with Dr. Lander to discuss the seriousness of the matter and the President’s expectation that all staff interactions be conducted with respect,” the White House said. “We take this incredibly seriously and we are taking swift action to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”

The White House said the review did not find “credible evidence” of gender-based discrimination and that the reassignment of the staffer who filed the original complaint was “deemed appropriate.”

On Friday, Lander issued an apology to staffers in his office, acknowledging, “I have spoken to colleagues within OSTP in a disrespectful or demeaning way.”

“I am deeply sorry for my conduct,” he added. “I especially want to apologize to those of you who I treated poorly, or were present at the time.”

Lander, whose position was elevated to Cabinet-rank by Biden, appeared prominently with the president last week when he relaunched his “Cancer Moonshot” program to marshal federal resources behind research and treatment for cancer diseases.

The founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Lander is a mathematician and molecular biologist. He was lead author of the first paper announcing the details of the human genome, the so-called “book of life.”

His confirmation to his role in the Biden administration was delayed for months as senators sought more information about meetings he had with the late Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier who was charged with sex trafficking before his suicide. Lander also was criticized for downplaying the contributions of two Nobel Prize-winning female scientists.

At his confirmation hearing last year, Lander apologized for a 2016 article he wrote that downplayed the work of the female scientists. At the hearing, he also called Epstein “an abhorrent individual. ″

Lander said he “understated the importance of those key advances″ by biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna. The two were later awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The findings against Lander were first reported by Politico.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.