A 10-year-old Argentine girl was found by Brazilian police seven years after she was kidnapped by her father, authorities said.
The discovery of the child occurred this March in the western city of Dourados, but was only reported now by the media after the authorities, having confirmed her identity, handed her over to representatives of the Argentine Embassy.
The Civil Police of Mato Grosso do Sul, a state that borders on Bolivia and Paraguay, said they found the girl thanks to an anonymous informant who said the minor was being mistreated and that her father kept her in a “private jail”.
The girl, who spent the last two months in a children’s shelter in Dourados, travelled Friday with representatives of the Argentine Embassy, who gave her back to her mother of Bolivian origin.
Argentine diplomat Maria Seane de Chiodi told reporters in Dourados that the girl received medical, psychological and linguistic assistance from the embassy while she was at the shelter.
After she was found, the girl’s father, a Paraguayan national, was held in custody for several days but fled the country under a false identity after being released on bail.