They apprehend a Carmelite priest accused of sexual abuse

Milton Murillo Ortiz has been carrying a very heavy backpack full of complaints against him for nine years. The first became official in 2021. They accuse him of sexual abuse when he was the director of the Seminary of the Virgin of Fatima Carmelite Order in the city of La Paz. Today he is apprehended in Tarija and the Prosecutor’s Office of that region requested that he be detained in the Morros Blancos prison. Yesterday, the Public Ministry raided Jesuit estates at the seat of government.

A second case involving a Priest accused of sexual crimess is also in Tarija. This is Jorge LMV, known as the father “Coco”, who was denounced in 2021 for sexual harassment and abuse. The Mayor of El Puente, in the department of Tarija, asked the diocese of that region to suspend the religious activities of the parish priest of that municipality. The departmental prosecutor of Tarija, Sandra Gutiérrez, said yesterday that there are no complaints from victims, so the case is at ground zero.

Regarding the case of the apprehended priest, Gutiérrez confirmed that the priest will be subjected to a precautionary hearing for the crime of sexual abuse. Likewise, the prosecutor from Tarija admitted that the aforementioned case is still under investigation, but that it was declared confidential because there could be other victims of the accused.

“We are going to avoid giving further details and the only thing we are reporting officially is the execution of the arrest warrant against the investigated parish priest,” said prosecutor Gutiérrez.

The arrest of the religious occurred yesterday at around 07:45 in the vicinity of the Church of San Roque. Subsequently, the priest was taken to the facilities of the Special Force to Combat Violence (Felcv), where he gave his statement.

The religious served as parish priest of the Church of San Roque in place of Garvin Grench, who was suspended in September 2022 for allegations of sexual harassment and embezzlement of economic funds.

On this case, the Bishopric of the Diocese of Tarija has not yet ruled, although on Tuesday it published a statement to clarify the situation of another priest involved in an alleged “sexual harassment.” This is the case of father Coco.

In 2021, the father ‘Coco’ was denounced for sexual harassment and abuse. The religious taught Christianity classes at the Bolivian Catholic University (UCB) in Tarija. To date, at least four students have denounced that they were victims of the priest.

Crimes committed in La Paz

Murillo is accused of sexually abusing at least 30 seminarians at the time. The cases date back to 2014 and a first complaint was only made public two years ago, although there were already unofficial complaints. His father, now apprehended, was removed from his post in La Paz and taken to Rome, Italy, but returned to the country. He was in Tarija until he was apprehended.

Meanwhile, the State Attorney General, Wilfredo Chávez, asked the Ministry of Education to intervene schools run by the Jesuits. Likewise, students from the Juan XXIII school in Cochabamba also denounced that another priest, Ernesto Pifarre, abused girls between 1992 and 1995.

“To the Ministry of Education, which is the governing body, to take protective measures for children and adolescents in these schools, whether they are directly administered by Jesuits or indirectly through agreements,” Chávez requested.

And a first step was taken by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police. Yesterday he raided the main office of the Jesuits in the city of La Paz. These entities seek information on the latest cases of pedophilia that have been reported in the country. From these facilities, documentation was seized that allegedly contains data on two deceased priests, accused of abusing minors.

In this regard, the departmental prosecutor of La Paz, William Alave, reported that a commission made up of three prosecutors was appointed to investigate complaints against priests involved in sexual abuse at the seat of Government.