Colombian Prosecutor’s Office asks to investigate priest Francisco De Roux for alleged cover-up of abuses

The Attorney General’s Office of Colombia gave the green light to the investigation into the complaint against the Jesuit priest Francisco De Roux for alleged cover-up of sexual abuse when he was provincial of the Society of Jesus in 2014, according to local media reports.

The complaint was made public at the end of October by Luis Fernando Llano Narváez, who in May 2014 informed Father De Roux of the abuse that he and his seven sisters suffered between 1976 and 1979 at the hands of the priest Darío Chavarriaga.

That year, Father Chavarriaga was director of studies at the Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé, located in the historic center of Bogotá and where Luis Fernando Llano was studying thanks to a scholarship.

According to the complainant, he received the scholarship due to the poor economic situation in his home, and that was used by Father Chavarriaga to gain the family’s trust.

Father Francisco De Roux —who between 2017 and 2022 chaired the Truth Commission in Colombia— has assured that in June 2014 he met with Chavarriaga, who accepted having committed the sexual abuse and was removed from the position he held.

Likewise, he said that he confined him “in the Infirmary, which is where Jesuit fathers go in a terminal state.” On September 9, 2015, Father Chavarriaga died from cancer.

According to Father De Roux, he did not present the case to the Prosecutor’s Office because canon law did not require it and because the victims—with the exception of one of the sisters—were satisfied with the investigation and the measures imposed.

“I consulted the lawyers and the opinion I received was that the criminal action had already expired. Today, as you know, this is absolutely imprescriptible with the evolution of regulations,” he said.

By 2014, when Fr. De Roux was informed of the abuses, article 83 of the Penal Code pointed out that for sexual crimes “committed on minors, the criminal action will expire in twenty (20) years from the moment the victim reaches the age of majority.”

This was modified with the Law 2081 of 2021which established that these crimes are imprescriptible.

According to Luis Fernando Llano, he and his sisters were between 6 and 16 years old when they were victims of the abuse.

In his statements to the media, Father De Roux assured that he applied “all the instruments that were in my hands. I did not manipulate Luis Fernando or his sisters to encourage their silence. But if you ask me today what I would have done, I would repeat the process of the Canon Code, because it is very rigorous, but once the end was established, I would have presented myself with that to the Prosecutor’s Office.”

However, in a video published this Thursday by Caracol Newsthe Llano brothers point out that Father De Roux’s explanation is not sufficient and that what he did was not correct.

“There has to be a moment when a person commits a crime and cannot die unpunished and those who knew about the facts remain silent (…). We cannot wait another 40 years, when we will no longer be around, for things like These continue to happen and there is that cloak of impunity,” said Luis Fernando Llano.

ACI Prensa contacted the Society of Jesus in Colombia by email to obtain statements, without receiving a response so far.

For his part, the Jesuit priest’s defense lawyer, Juan David Riveros Barragán, reported that on November 8 he asked the Prosecutor’s Office that Father De Roux “be heard during the interrogation process.”

He indicated that the objective is for “as soon as possible (the priest) to clarify any concerns that may exist about the conduct he displayed as provincial of the Society of Jesus in the context of the case reported by the Llano family.”

“We are waiting for the Prosecutor’s Office to define the date to carry out the aforementioned diligence since as of today we have not been notified of it,” he said in his statement published on November 21.

The complaint against Father De Roux for alleged cover-up of abuses is not the first involving the Society of Jesus in Latin America.

The most notorious case has taken place in Bolivia, where the Jesuits have requested forgiveness for not having acted correctly in response to complaints of abuse by Father Luis María Roma, who died in 2019.

In a statement On June 16, 2024, the Society of Jesus in Bolivia recognized “with deep regret that the actions of those who were in charge of responding to reports of sexual abuse of girls, boys and adolescents and acting on behalf of the victims were negligent, indolent and disastrous.”