INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
significant clerical pedophilia scandal.Government Minister Eduardo Del Castillo shared a photo of the priest, Jorge Luis Machicado, being
transported in a patrol car from his rural parish in Tarija, located 650 kilometers south of La Paz, to the police headquarters.Machicado is
the third priest arrested since the scandal emerged in late April when a diary left behind by deceased Spanish Jesuit Alfonso Pedrajas
revealed his confession of abusing minors in the 1970s and 1980s.Two weeks earlier, another priest was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
the abuse of a minor in Santa Cruz, while a priest under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of seminarians a decade ago was also
detained.Jorge Luis Machicado
partial excerpts were published.Concerns have been raised about the timing and possession of the diary, with demands for accountability from
the Bolivian judicial investigation.Before this, Bolivian President Luis Arce had written to the Pope, condemning the complicit silence of
the local ecclesiastical structure and requesting access to relevant files.Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu, who led investigations into abuse
cases in Chile and Paraguay, visited Bolivia after the Pedrajas case came to light.The Bolivian Church clarified that the visit was
complaints.Ongoing confidential investigations into alleged sexual abuse by priests are being conducted by the judiciary, with at least 12
cases currently under scrutiny according to the Bolivian Episcopal Conference.
