Bolivia: Church Accused of Obstructing Pederasty Investigation

On Tuesday, Juan Lanchipa, Attorney General of Bolivia, denounced that the Catholic Church has not complied with the commitment to cooperate with the investigations of pederasty, as in the case of the Spanish Jesuit Alfonso Pedrajas.

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"We want to inform that on Monday we have received, via International Cooperation, the diary of the priest Alfonso Pedrajas. The Catholic Church has previously sent this diary to the Prosecutor's Office, but with erasures, and we have evidenced that those names correspond to names, dates and places. This shows that the Church has not complied with its commitment to cooperate in the investigation", said Lanchipa in a press conference.

According to Lanchipa, a copy of the newspaper sent from Spain was sent to the Departmental Prosecutor's Office of Cochabamba, so that they can proceed with the investigations based on its contents.

The Prosecutor's Office previously stated that this information was incomplete, as there were missing pages in the diary, jumping from page two to page 32, and much of the text was erased.

Lanchipa has also revealed the existence of another diary belonging to another Spanish Jesuit, Luis Roma Padrosa, in which he narrates events committed against children, and provides names and places of the abuses.

According to official statements, the diary of Alfonso Pedrajas narrates the alleged abuses perpetrated against dozens of minors, while he was in charge of the Juan XXIII School in 1971, in Bolivia.

The investigations are being carried out by the departmental Prosecutor's Offices of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, where the events occurred in rural areas.

On June 20, the Jesuit Community had delivered the alleged diary of the priest Alfonso Pedrajas to the Public Prosecutor's Office in a sealed envelope.