Bolivia sentences priests for concealing decades of child sex abuse

A stock photograph of a judge using the gavel. (Pexels/Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA)

Warning: The following story contains details about child sex abuse. Reader discretion is advised.

LA PAZ - A Bolivian court sentenced two elderly Spanish Jesuit priests to a year each in prison on Tuesday for concealing decades of child sex abuse committed by their colleague in the church.

The convictions of the priests, Marcos Recolons, 81, and Ramon Alaix, 83, mark Bolivia’s first successful criminal prosecution against high-ranking members of the Catholic Jesuit order implicated in concealing abuse cases.

Prosecutors argued that Recolons and Alaix led the Jesuit order in Bolivia while the abuse occurred. They were aware of the allegations against a priest, Alfonso Pedrajas, but failed to report them to police, allowing him to continue contact with children, according to the prosecution.

The case came to light in 2023 with the publication of a diary belonging to Pedrajas, who died in 2009. In it, he wrote about abusing at least 85 minors between 1972 and 2000, many of whom were indigenous students on scholarships at a prominent boarding school.

The diary entries sparked international outrage and intensified the debate over the Catholic Church’s accountability in child sex abuse scandals across Latin America.

“Victims have cried and waited for justice for decades,” said Pedro Lima, a spokesperson for a Bolivian sex abuse survivors’ group, said ahead of the sentencing.

He called the ruling a historic precedent for both the country and the global fight against impunity in clerical abuse cases, adding, “This harm to humble people must never happen again in Bolivia.”

Reporting by Reuters, additional reporting by Daniel Ramos; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; editing by Cassandra Garrison.