The Catholic priest Nepomuceno Hernández Blanco (57) was charged with the crime of sexual abuse, reported the attorney general, Tarek William Saab.
Hernández is the priest of the San Juan Bautista parish (La Ermita church), located in the La Concordia sector, San Cristóbal, Táchira.
Saab reported that the priest “under the influence of alcohol invited the 13-year-old CYJV to eat and then sexually assaulted her.”
The complaint against Hernández was filed last Saturday by an aunt of the victim who was near the parish house.
Officials attached to the Strategic Investigations Directorate of the Bolivarian National Police arrived at the site and the woman told them that the priest had taken her niece.
The agents entered the parish house with two witnesses and reached a room where they allegedly surprised the priest committing sexual abuse without penetration against the teenager.
The officials read the constitutional rights to the priest and notified the 22nd Prosecutor of the Public Ministry, in charge of the lawyer Yuri Ruiz, who instructed them to transfer Hernández to the police headquarters.
In the parish house, the agents seized two bottles of liquor and two boxes of cigarettes, among others, as reflected in the file CPNB-004-013TA-INT-SP-GD-001086-202.
So far the Diocese of San Cristóbal, headed by Mario Moronta, has not issued any statement.
