Former Mexico City Priest Carlos López Valdés Sentenced to 63 Years for Abuse of Altar Boy

Jesús Romero, a 35-year-old Mexican psychologist, says he waited ten years to see the priest who abused him held to account. Carlos López Valdés, 72, has been sentenced to more than six decades in prison. Romero described the process as “a very difficult road and with many obstacles,” and said that after years of complaints he had finally secured the sentence against the priest who abused him as a child.

According to Romero, the abuse began when he was an altar boy at the Parish of St. Augustine de las Cuevas, in the south of Mexico City. He said López Valdés first abused him at a country house in Cuernavaca, where the priest had invited him to spend a weekend with the permission of his parents. Romero was 11 years old at the time, and the priest was 50. He said the abuse continued for five years.

Romero said his parents trusted the priest and had never imagined he would harm their son. He also said he had needed psychological therapy to recover.

Romero filed his complaint in 2007, but López Valdés was not arrested until 2016, and the conviction was announced this week. The victim’s lawyer, Luis Ángel Salas, described the sentence as historic, saying it is the first against a priest for pederasty in Mexico City. Salas also said the case took so long because of what he called “a close complicity between church and civil authorities.” These are the lawyer’s statements and have not been independently established in this report.

The sentence is for 63 years, but Salas noted that the maximum time a person can serve in Mexico City is 40 years. He said he and Romero are now seeking to clarify the responsibility of the church’s institutional structure in the case.

After the sentence was made known, the Primate Archdiocese of Mexico said it maintains zero tolerance for the crime of paedophilia and is fully available to cooperate with the authorities in seeking justice. The archdiocese’s statement did not address the lawyer’s claims about institutional responsibility in the reported material.

Romero said he and his lawyer believe other victims exist but have not come forward. He said the priest’s conviction has also brought other responses. “My case has been symbolic and many people who have gone through the same thing have called me and written me,” he said. “Some have found hope that one day they will achieve justice.”

Source: Read the original report (translated from Spanish)