The Society of Jesus in Bolivia has filed a complaint this Wednesday with the country's police to initiate an official investigation into the case of priest Alfonso Pedrajas, the Spanish Jesuit who died in 2009 who admitted in a secret newspaper that he abused dozens of children in various schools of the order in the Andean country and how the order covered it all up.
The complaint is "generic" and is based on the report published by EL PAÍS about the newspaper left by the Jesuit.
It is not the first action taken by the order after learning of the case.
The provincial of the order, Bernardo Mercado, announced this Tuesday that the Company has sanctioned eight former high-ranking officials of the congregation accused of covering up the crimes of Pedrajas, known as Father Pica.
The order has not yet released the names of these former senior officials.
Yes, he has qualified that five of them held the position during the time in which Pica committed the abuses and another three did so after his death.
“In commitment assumed before the population and the government authorities with which we have made contact, we are going to formalize the complaint today;
Father Bernardo Mercado is going to sign the complaint
so that the investigation can begin," the Jesuits' lawyer, Audalia Zurita, told the media before entering the offices of the Special Force to Combat Violence in La Paz.
On the other hand, the Ombudsman, Pedro Callisaya, has demanded the Bolivian Government in a statement published this Wednesday to intervene and ensure that the victims of Pedrajas "receive comprehensive care", since "they surely continue to suffer the effects of these aberrations facts".
It has also urged the Catholic Church to "apply preventive measures and make extreme efforts" to prevent children "from being exposed to sexual assault in reception or educational institutions, which should be spaces that provide them with security... and where can fully exercise their rights.
The Ombudsman has also offered to listen and legally accompany the victims who need his help.
The alumni association of the Bolivian Juan XXIII school, in Cochamabma, which Pedrajas directed and in which he committed many of the attacks that he recognizes in the newspaper, report that they denounced that the Society of Jesus in Bolivia decades ago, for which it "had full knowledge” of the facts and covered them up.
"Not only because of the repeated confessions of Pedrajas Moreno to the Catalan provincials and priests of said institution (which come to light in the newspaper), but also because of the complaints filed by the students at different times, for which they were expelled from the school" .
Or, in other cases, "violent to keep them silent," says the association in a statement published on Tuesday.
The General Assembly of Former Students of the Colegio Juan XXIII met on May 1 to discuss a position on the publication of the case and the testimonies published by this newspaper of five victims of the Jesuit.
After the meeting, he issued a "strong condemnation" for the "events that occurred (...) during the years 1972-1987, whose confessed author", they point out, is Pedrajas.
They also expressed their solidarity with the victims, many of whom are part of their collective, and demanded that the Bolivian bishops and the State "carry out the investigations that the case warrants."
The president of the alumni organization, Hilarión Baldiviezo, declared to the press that the suspension of the superiors of the Company ordered by the provincial "is not enough" and that they are demanding criminal sanctions.
The Juan XXIII school is a boarding school for children of rural and popular origin.
Founded in 1964, it passed into the hands of the Society of Jesus at the end of that decade.
The Spaniard Alfonso Pedrajas became assistant director in 1972. For 15 years, he became the main Jesuit authority in the educational center, which he took advantage of to abuse minors, crimes that he considered a "disease."
He kept a record of his actions on his computer and also of the people in the order with whom he spoke about it.
13 years after his death, this newspaper came into the hands of his nephew Fernando Pedrajas, who filed a complaint with the Bolivian ecclesiastical authorities and handed the newspaper over to EL PAÍS.
The Bolivian Jesuits only responded to this complaint when the report was published.
Before they had said that they did not validate it.
Audalia Zurita, the lawyer for the Society of Jesus in Bolivia, argued that the order has a “safe environment” policy that follows the instructions for treatment of child abuse victims given by Pope Francis.
She also declared to the press that the Company "is not the defendant, but the accuser."
The Attorney General of the Bolivian State, Wilfredo Chávez, reported this Wednesday that he has already requested information from the Public Prosecutor of Spain, as well as from EL PAÍS to, with the data obtained, support a criminal proceeding in Cochabamba, the epicenter of the activities of Pica.
"These are events that occurred a few decades ago, but there are still some people who have participated and have known about these abominable criminal acts who are still working in the Society of Jesus," he declared at a press conference on Wednesday.
Chávez pointed out that the revelations about the abuses of Father Alfonso Pedrajas "are not an isolated case", since other members of the Society of Jesus in Bolivia have already been accused of similar crimes.
In 2019, the Efe news agency released the accusation of pedophilia against another Jesuit, who died that year, by a former religious man who was allegedly his victim.
The president of the Human Rights Commission of the Legislative Assembly, Magalí Gómez, also sided with the investigation.
“We will follow up on this case,” she told Bolivian journalists.
The revelations about Pedrajas, known as "father Pica", whose number of victims he himself estimated at around 85 children, have shocked Bolivia and have been the subject of major media headlines these days.