EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 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 us at:
Abusos@elpais.es
.
If it is a case in Latin America, the address is:
Abusamerica@elpais.es
.
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Time plays against a person who has suffered sexual abuse in childhood, because when he manages to tell it, if he does, sometimes many decades later, the law can no longer do anything to punish his attacker, the crime has prescribed.
And the pedophile can continue acting.
In 2010, in Chile, a movement emerged to change this called Right to Time, which asks that these crimes never expire.
He achieved his goal in 2019, also due to the outrage over the priest Fernando Karadima scandal.
The same had happened in El Salvador with the case of priest Jesús Delgado, who admitted past abuse after his victim's complaint, but could not be tried, and the country changed the law in 2015. Chile and El Salvador have united in the last decade by Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Ecuador, in all of them pedophilia no longer prescribes, although the measure has no retroactive effect.
In this way, according to a report prepared by the organizations CHILD Global, the Right to Time Foundation and Brave Movement, Latin America has been placing itself at the forefront of legal changes to combat this scourge in the world, where there are a total of 32 states. who have approved this measure.
The report, which is presented today, Tuesday, highlights the work of the press, which has uncovered numerous scandals in the Church, in promoting debate and social change.
In Bolivia, for example, it was thanks to an investigation by EL PAÍS, which revealed the abuses of the Spanish Jesuit, Alfonso Pedrajas, who had written a diary with his crimes.
The case later uncovered many others and the Bolivian Government presented a bill to Congress to abolish the statute of limitations on these crimes, although it was rejected.
Bolivia is among the countries most backward in legislation, since the statute of limitations for rape ends when the victim turns 30 years old.
In Spain, where this newspaper has been investigating pedophilia in the Church since 2018 and motivated the first official investigation, the Catalan Parliament has just approved a proposal to Congress to reform the Penal Code and make pedophile crimes punishable by more than five years in prison. do not prescribe
It is something that already exists in countries like Belgium, Holland, Switzerland or Sweden.
The 65-page report analyzes the legislation of 19 Latin American countries to x-ray what the situation is like in each of them.
The authors hope that it will be a tool for activists, politicians and legislators to promote changes that prevent impunity for crime.
In a classification of the countries, from best to worst according to their legal systems, Chile, El Salvador and Mexico are the most virtuous, because they also do not have an agreement with the Holy See that hinders or conditions investigations in any way, another factor that analyzes the study.
They are followed by Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, which have also abolished the prescription, but maintain agreements with the Vatican.
The authors of the document consider that "it would be good practice for national governments to abolish their concordats with the Vatican" as they warn that in some countries there are provisions that can prevent a cleric from being prosecuted, and therefore represent "a fundamental threat both for democracy as well as for human rights.”
“At a minimum, they should reform them to enshrine the principle that no provision will affect the prosecution of clergy sexual crimes or the exchange of information with public officials in their judicial or extrajudicial investigation,” they point out.
In many cases, as has happened in Spain with the Ombudsman's investigation, the authorities do not have access to the Church's archives and documentation, which may refuse to provide them.
In fact, in the study's classification, "Spain would be in the lower half of the table," says Miguel Hurtado, the victim who uncovered the abuse in the Montserrat Abbey, Barcelona, and founding member of Brave Movement, which has participated in the job.
In the middle part of the Latin American classification are Uruguay, Honduras, Paraguay, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba and Guatemala.
In the lower section are Argentina and Venezuela, because they have statutes of limitations and concordats.
Finally, at the most negative end of the table, the report places Brazil and the Dominican Republic as the countries with legislation most hostile to victims.
They are the two states where a concordat with the Holy See most limits the ability to investigate crimes and also have statutes of limitations.
Furthermore, the Dominican Republic and Cuba are the only two places where the period does not begin to count with the age of majority, but from the moment of the crime, which further reduces the time to report.
Vinka Jackson, psychologist, writer and survivor of sexual abuse, was the one who opened the debate in Chile in 2007, promoted the Right to Time foundation and is one of the co-authors of the report: “With the right to time we demand to embrace the evidence of science , of medicine, so that victims of child sexual abuse can have the time to understand, elaborate, process, assimilate and then verbalize what they experienced in order to resort to justice, without fearing that the wall of statutes of limitations , arbitrarily defined, not only impede justice, but also interfere with reparation processes.”
What he hopes with this study is to add to the end of the prescription the authorities of other countries "who have it in their hands to open the door and put time on the side of the victims."
The dossier points out that “historically, the statute of limitations for crimes related to sexual abuse of minors have been unfairly short,” and although it has been justified that the statute of limitations “promotes judicial effectiveness,” the victims suffer the loss of their right to reparation, which “is experienced as a double punishment.”
The document cites a study in the United Kingdom that pointed out how 44.9% of men and 25.4% of women who suffered abuse were not able to tell it until more than 20 years had passed.
Another work in the United States, which analyzed cases of abuse in the Boy Scouts of America, established that more than 50% of those who reported it did so after the age of 50.
Hurtado believes that “thanks to investigative journalism, civil society has learned about the phenomenon of delayed reporting, that the victim does not report when they want, but when they can.”
If justice cannot then act, "the civil rights of the victims are violated and other minors are put in danger, because without a conviction the aggressor can continue working with children."
Furthermore, the report recalls that recidivism in these criminals is very high and “their risk may increase as they age, since they have greater practical experience, a more sophisticated modus operandi, their social status in the community is more consolidated, and the asymmetry of power with his victims is even greater.”
On the other hand, the study points out that it is necessary to create a broad international consensus on the prescription of pedophilia crimes because aggressors change countries and may seek the most permissive ones.
It has been evident in the case of the Church, which has been transferring pedophile priests for decades.
The debate on the abolition of the statute of limitations has not only reached criminal proceedings, but also civil proceedings, where compensation is claimed.
In some cases, it has even been applied with retroactive effect: in California, in 2003, the formula of a temporary window was established that allowed, during a period of one year, to present lawsuits with retroactive effect for events of the past that have already prescribed.
Currently, in Spain the period ends one year after the consequences of the damage are stabilized.
However, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, promised in his inauguration speech to “strengthen the legal framework so that the crimes of sexual assault and abuse of minors are not limited to a specific moment and civil liability does not prescribe.”
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