Más Información
Authorities suspended Jalisco judge Jorge Luis Aranda after he refused to charge a former government official with the corrupting of a minor. The judge is now under investigation.
Authorities arrested Luis Alonso “N” on July 26 in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco . He was inside his vehicle, abused a 10-year-old girl who was completely naked.
Luis Alonso “N” worked at the Puerto Vallarta police department but was fired after his arrest. The abuser was bound over for trial child abuse charges on August 3.
On Friday, prosecutors asked the judge to bound the abuse over for trial on "the corruption of a minor" charges; however, he denied the request because he argued the man already faced child abuse charges.
After activists and social media users launched an online campaign to demand justice for the victim, Jalisco governor Enrique Alfaro took to social media to announce he discussed the case with Ricardo Suro Esteves, the head of the local tribunal. Judge Esteves informed the governor of his decision to suspect judge Jorge Luis Aranda without a salary and the launching of an investigation.
Enrique Alfaro explained the former government official remains in prison and vowed to do everything in his power so that the abuser stays in prison for a long time. However, it later emerged that the pedophile is held on preventive custody and that his lawyers are working to suspend the legal process. Additionally, the judge refused to impose harsher charges.
Recommended: Mexican religious leader charged with sex crimes held on $90 million bail
The Financial Intelligence Unit launches an investigation
Santiago Nieto
, the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, announced the government department blocked the judge’s bank accounts on Monday. Nieto confirmed the abuser’s accounts were also blocked.
The federal official said it is investigating both men and that the UIF could file a lawsuit.
Since Santiago Nieto took office, the government department has signed several agreements to fight human trafficking.
Recommended: Mexican religious leader accused of human trafficking, child rape
Child abuse in Mexico
In recent years, child sex abuse reached alarming levels in Mexico. Official numbers showed that until November 2019, victims reported at least 3,451 sexual abuse cases; almost 1,400 more cases than in 2015.
In the last year, the head of an evangelist church known as "La Luz del Mundo" faced human trafficking and sexual abuse charges in the U.S.
Naasón Joaquín García is currently in a U.S. prison. Jalisco governor Enrique Alfaro once called him a friend Naasón Joaquín.
The leader of a Mexican fundamentalist Christian church was arrested in Los Angeles on charges of human trafficking, child rape, child pornography, and other crimes in June 2019.
The organization, which has its headquarters in Guadalajara, Jalisco, claims more over 1 million followers worldwide and has two churches in East and West L.A.
According to documents, in August 2017, Ocampo told a group of girls in Los Angeles County that if they went against the desires or wishes of “the Apostle,” Naasón Joaquín, that they were going against God.
A month later, in September, Ocampo directed minors to perform “flirty” dances for Naasón Joaquín “wearing as little clothing as possible,” the complaint reads. After that dance, García supposedly gave a speech to the children about a king having a mistress and stated that an apostle of God can never be judged for his actions.
In December 2019, the Catholic religious order Legionaries of Christ revealed that its founder, Marcial Maciel, abused at least 60 boys.
This report was released a few decades late because victims came out to denounce the heinous crimes since the 1940s, yet Pope John Paul and the Vatican dismissed accusations by seminarians that Maciel had sexually abused them, some when they were as young as 12.
The Legionaries of Christ said the report covers the period since Maciel founded it in his native Mexico in 1941 to this year, was “an additional attempt (by the Legionaries) to confront their history.”
Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, who died in 2008, was perhaps the Roman Catholic Church’s most notorious pedophile, even abusing children he secretly fathered with two women while living a double life.
Years ago, it emerged that Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 92, who was secretary of state under John Paul, was one of the Legionaries’ biggest protectors in the Vatican.
On December 21, Pope Francis accepted his resignation as dean of the college of cardinals and at the same time, changed church law to limit the dean’s position to a five-year term, rather than for life.
The Vatican first acknowledged Maciel’s crimes in 2006, when Pope Benedict ordered him to retire to a life of “prayer and penitence”. But Benedict resisted calls from some in the Church who said the order should be dissolved because it was toxic. Instead, the Vatican took over the order in 2010 and began a process of reform.
The new report says that between 1941 and 2019, 175 minors were victims of abuse by 33 priests in the order. At least 60, or about one-third, were abused by Marcial Maciel himself, it said.
Most of the victims were boys between 11 and 16, it said.
gm
