Woke justice? Bogotá detains director of 'Colombia: Factory of Trans Children' after he refused to silence exposé on mutilation of minors

Mexican content creator Samuel Adrián was arrested on Sunday at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, following a contempt of court warrant issued by a court in Cali, Colombia. Adrián is the director of "Colombia: Factory of Trans Children," a viral documentary that addresses hormonal and surgical treatments in sex-reassignment surgeries performed on minors in the country, which has sparked intense sociopolitical and legal controversy since its release.

Although the National Police of Colombia clarified that the procedure does not constitute a criminal investigation, but rather the enforcement of a court order, his arrest is already generating significant controversy in the South American country and throughout the region.

The case stems from a constitutional complaint filed by Dr. Mario Angulo, who was directly mentioned by Adrián in his documentary and in subsequent posts. According to various reports in the Colombian press, the Mexican content creator repeatedly refused to remove the material from YouTube despite the court order, which led to his arrest for contempt of court.

Adrián, however, knew he was taking that risk.

Before boarding his flight to Bogotá, he posted a video from Tocumen Airport in Panama, in which he confirmed that a court order mandated his arrest for 10 days, in addition to the payment of a fine equivalent to 15 Colombian minimum wages. Despite the situation, the documentary director decided to travel, arguing that he had done nothing wrong and that the order was an attack on freedom of expression.

"I didn't commit any crime, and I'm not going to sit idly by," he said at the time, adding that his lawyers in Mexico and Colombia would work on his defense.

Once in custody, he reiterated his position following the police operation .

"The real victims are the thousands of Colombian children who have been subjected to the perverse agenda of so-called sex reassignment, because in the end I will regain my freedom in 10 days, but many of these children will have to live the rest of their lives with the irreversible consequences of treatments they should never have been subjected to," he denounced.

Calls for his release and the president's message

The case quickly escalated into a political debate. The Argentine writer and conservative activist Agustín Laje publicized the arrest on X, describing it as a direct consequence of Adrián's refusal to "silence" the allegations raised in his documentary.

"The Colombian justice system, during Petro's administration, had ordered his arrest after he refused to silence the allegations in his documentary 'Colombia: Factory of Trans Children,' which exposed what was happening to minors in Colombian clinics. Samuel came to Colombia to defend the children. Today he is in prison. This is extremely serious," said Laje.

Subsequently, the case reached Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella himself, who also spoke out on X, though without getting into the dispute over who ordered the arrest.

He used the incident to make a direct appeal to Congress: "The case of Samuel Adrián, who today begins 10 days of detention after denouncing hormone treatments for the misnamed 'sex change' in minors and warning of their possible irreversible consequences, must spark a national debate. I call on Congress: the time has come to legislate on the limits and prohibitions regarding these procedures for minors."

He added: "The interpretation of the free development of personality and progressive autonomy has left gaps that must be resolved through legislation, always in accordance with the constitutional principle that children's rights take precedence. We cannot continue to leave these decisions solely in the hands of guardianship orders, administrative protocols and judicial precedents. La Patria Milagro begins by defending our children, their families and parental authority. In my administration, children are sacred."

The debate currently taking place in Colombia is beginning to show patterns similar to those that have been unfolding in the United States for years, where the legal dispute over these transgender treatments for minors is also in full swing. Recently, 21 states led by Democratic governors sued the Trump administration to block a rule that would cut off federal funding, through Medicaid, for these types of procedures on adolescents.

The White House has repeatedly defended the measure, citing a Department of Health report that concluded the risks of these treatments outweigh their medical benefits and recommended prioritizing psychotherapy. Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, supported the rule with an argument similar to Adrián's claim in Colombia: "Children deserve our protection, not experimental interventions that pose serious risks and convey no proven benefits."

Most Republican-led states in the U.S. already ban these procedures for minors, a stance that aligns with that of several European countries that have restricted or outright halted these types of interventions after reviewing the available scientific evidence.