Texas man arrested in Bogotá child sex abuse case, three children found

A Texas man was arrested in Bogotá after neighbors flagged a balcony video that authorities say showed a child being abused in broad daylight. Police entered the apartment, found three children inside and turned the suspect over to prosecutors on charges tied to sexual abuse of a child under 14.

The man, described by CBS News as 36 and from Texas, had arrived in Bogotá on June 6 as a tourist, just days before the arrest on Sunday, June 15, 2026. Colombian authorities said the alleged abuse involved a 7-year-old boy in Chicó Navarra, an upscale neighborhood in Usaquén, and that the apartment was being rented through Airbnb.

Inside the apartment, officials found children ages 4, 7 and 15. They were taken to a medical center for evaluation and later placed in the care of Colombia’s child protection agency, the Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar. The presence of three minors in the custody of a foreigner who had been in the country for about eight days has triggered a wider review of how the children came to be there.

The Procuraduría General de la Nación announced special oversight of both the adoption process and the judicial proceedings, underscoring the institutional questions now surrounding the case. That scrutiny is aimed not only at the alleged abuse itself, but at the chain of supervision that left minors under institutional protection vulnerable to contact with an outsider in a short-stay rental.

Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán said there was “no room for mistreatment or abuse of boys and girls.” President Gustavo Petro later cast doubt on the accusations and suggested, without presenting proof, that the episode may have involved AI or “computer manipulation.” The competing public responses highlight the pressure on Colombian authorities to move quickly, preserve evidence and show that the case will be handled transparently.

The arrest comes as Colombia faces intensifying concern over foreign sex tourism. Authorities have said the country turned away around 100 foreigners traveling for sex tourism in the first half of 2026, a reminder that the case in Bogotá sits within a broader enforcement problem: identifying offenders early, coordinating across borders and protecting children before abuse reaches a camera screen.