A total of 23 children have died in 18 days of this month, due to a range of causes, including house fires, suffocation, drowning, stabbing and being abandoned or neglected.
According to assistant prosecutor Daysi Garcia, who heads the Department of Children, Adolescents and the Family in the National District, the high numbers are causing great concern. She pointed out that most of these deaths had been accidental.
She said that the homicide department must thoroughly investigate each case in order to establish whether parental negligence was to blame.
She explained that under the law, there was something called a natural punishment and when parents lost a child they were felt to be suffering anyway due to their loss, so cases of this nature are rarely followed up.
The law currently says that if parents abandon children in the home, they should be imprisoned for two to six months.
Of the 23 children who died this month, some were not properly supervised by their parents and had been left alone in the house or unsupervised outside and others died through violent means.
http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2015/09/28/389942/septiembre-un-mes-de-luto-por-los-ninos-23-muertos-de-manera-tragica-en-18-dias