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	Colombia Rocked by Father-Daughter Incest Case Reuters March 28, 2009 http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE52R2BW20090328 BOGOTA (Reuters) - A Colombian man accused of sexually abusing his daughter from a young age and fathering eight children with her was arrested on Saturday, causing an outcry over the lack of child protection in the Andean nation. Arcebio Alvarez, 58, was led away in handcuffs by agents from Colombia's attorney general's office after his daughter told police that he had abused her since she was a young girl. Alba Nidia Alvarez, 35, from the central town of Mariquita, said an evangelical Christian pastor had convinced her to come forward about the alleged abuse. "I took this decision according to the will of God, thanks to a pastor who prayed for me many times," she said in an interview with the daily newspaper El Tiempo. "That is what gave me the strength." Alba Nidia's mother died when she was 5, leaving her under the care of her father, who has been branded "the monster of Mariquita" by the local press. The eight children are between the ages of 1 and 19 and have been placed under state care. "This was happening day after day and no one did anything to stop it," local child rights activist Gilma Jimenez said. The case recalls that of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man sentenced this month to life in a secure mental unit for confining and raping his daughter for 24 years, fathering seven children with her and causing the death of his infant son. Arcebio Alvarez was due to make his first court appearance later on Saturday. Child welfare authorities have called for a sentence of life in prison should he be convicted, saying there are hundreds of thousands of child sexual abuse cases in Colombia that are not being prosecuted.
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