EL PAÍS launched in 2018 an investigation of pedophilia in the Spanish Church and has an updated database with all known cases. If you know of any case that has not seen the light, you can write to: abusos@elpais.es. If it is a case in Latin America, the address is: abusosamerica@elpais.es.
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The victims of pedophilia in the Jesuit schools of Bolivia have raised their voices to warn that the Government has not consulted them on the draft law that aims to make imprescriptible the crimes of pedophilia and to create a truth commission to investigate specific cases and prepare a report with the results. "Politicians don't care about us. They don't care about the victims. They want to approve a truth commission that they have designed without the advice of specialists in the field or victims' associations. It is only composed of public officials and they want to quickly approve the draft to close this matter," says Edwin Alvarado, spokesman for the alumni association of the Juan XXIII school in Cochabamba, epicenter of the scandal of abuse of minors of the Society of Jesus. Many of those affected are also surprised that the draft, presented a few weeks ago by President Luis Arce, proposes the elimination of the crime of statutory rape – in Bolivian law, when an adult has relations with a minor between 14 and 16 years old through seduction or deception. "We don't understand. The goal is supposed to curb impunity for abuses, and statutory rape is. It seems that this can benefit several politicians to rid them of these crimes," says Alvarado.
The Latin American country has seen how in less than a month pedophilia in the Church has become one of the most current issues. The publication of the secret diary of the Spanish Jesuit Alfonso Pedrajas, where he admitted that he abused dozens of children in Bolivian schools and that his superiors covered everything up, has shaken the pillars of the entire Bolivian Church. First, it forced the Society of Jesus to make a move, both to respond to the mismanagement of abuses for decades (it cautiously removed eight former senior officials for cover-up) and to stop the media earthquake. But it was not enough: new cases came to light and outrage settled in the street. In fact, in recent weeks, there have been small protests in the country's large cities, in which demonstrators, at the doors of seminaries, churches and other ecclesiastical organizations, have repudiated the response of religious leaders to pedophilia. In cities such as Santa Cruz, Sucre, Cochabamba or La Paz, banners called for justice and more protection for minors.
The issue jumped onto the political agenda. The Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation and the Bolivian president, in a matter of a week and a half, already had a draft law ready that would provide victims with "the right to clarify the truth" and to be compensated. But many of the organized victims feel that the contents of that document have not been sufficiently debated, nor has it been consulted with experts. They are afraid that haste will only favor the aggressors and their cover-ups. Therefore, they have prepared a text, to which this newspaper has had access, with a dozen proposals to modify several of its points and that they plan to present this Friday before the Legislative Assembly in La Paz.
The main demand of the association is that the formation of the truth commission be reformulated, whose members, in the current proposal, are only public officials. As an alternative, those affected demand that it be made up of "a couple of representatives of the organizations that bring together victims of clerical sexual crime", entities dedicated to the protection of human rights and at least two independent specialists (a man and a woman) elected by two-thirds of the parliamentary plenary. The commission, they emphasize in the document, should not be part of any member of the Executive, any ministry or the Ombudsman "to avoid the politicization of such a sensitive issue." Along the same lines, they propose that the group be "bicameral and multiparty, for which it must include, in addition to the presidents of both chambers [Senate and Congress], the second vice presidents, who are representatives of parliamentary minorities, to avoid party captivity." Emphatically, the association emphasizes that under no circumstances can the religious institutions to which the aggressors and the concealers have belonged participate in this initiative.
Ending Clergy Abuse, a global organization of victims of pedophilia in the Church, present in 17 countries on five continents, has also spoken about the commission proposed by the Government in the preliminary draft, to emphasize that this "is not consistent with internationally recognized standards for the formation of truth commissions such as those that have already prospered in countries such as Ireland." This association recalled in a statement days after Arce presented the draft that these initiatives "require the necessary and indispensable inclusion of the work of victims and human rights organizations" in order to "guarantee dignified, but above all effective, access to justice in an independent and impartial manner."
The international organization also shows its concern about the statements in an interview of the Minister of Justice, lawyer Iván Lima, and proposed member for this commission as technical secretary, in which he affirmed, without referring to specific studies, that between 1950 and 2021 99.7% of priests have not committed abuse of minors. "[This] allows us to notice, worryingly, a little objective criterion about the situation that the victims are currently experiencing," warns the entity. On the case of Pedrajas, Lima maintains that the number of victims that Pedrajas himself admitted in his diary (about 85) "seems excessive." Ending Clergy Abuse believes that these statements, in addition to revictimizing those affected, "can question the impartiality of this truth commission and make the laudable effort of the Bolivian government lose legitimacy, since a biased and non-impartial criterion would undermine the search for justice and reparation."
On other points of the draft, the alumni association believes that the new law should include as an aggravating factor "the abuse of power or conscience." Similarly, they propose increasing the prison sentence for concealers of sexual assaults on adults "up to a minimum of four to six years" and in the case of pedophilia, from seven to 10 years. "A paragraph should be included that states: 'When the accessory is the legal representative or highest authority of an entity whose members committed sexual crimes against children and adolescents, institutional responsibility is established in the commission of this crime," the document adds.
The alumni association insists that the new law must confirm "that no religious institution is above national laws, especially considering that the Concordat of 1851 is not endorsed by any law in Bolivia, therefore, it has no validity."
Rejection of Vatican investigation
Many of the victims have also not welcomed the visit to Bolivia of the Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu, one of the leading experts on abuse in the Church close to Pope Francis. Bertomeu has participated in numerous anti-abuse missions in Latin America, such as the investigation of Father Maciel in the Legionaries of Christ and the pedophilia scandal in the Chilean Church, which ended with the dismissal of practically the entire ecclesial leadership of this country. "The victims and survivors of clerical pedophilia in Chile have publicly denounced that in 2018 a papal commission composed of Bishops Charles Sicluna and Jordi Bertumeu was only a mechanism of revictimization and impunity. For this background, we alert public opinion that the arrival of Jordi Bertomeu to Bolivia aims to repeat the Chilean case, without results and with greater revictimization, "announced Tuesday the association of students of Juan XXIII in a statement.
Those affected say they are "concerned that an institution [the Catholic Church] that is investigated for possible commission of crimes in degree of cover-up and complicity meets with the victims" and demand that the Bolivian authorities prevent it from "transgressing the constitutional sovereignty" of Bolivia "before the possibility of installing ecclesial jurisdictions, which only revictimize the victims and intend to maintain impunity and the cover-up of sexual crimes by clerics Catholics."
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