MEXICO
National Catholic Reporter
by Jason Berry | Oct. 23, 2012
Mexican police arrested Jose Raúl Gonzalez Lara, a biological son of the late Legion of Christ founder Fr. Marcial Maciel, on Monday on charges of attempted extortion against the Legion.
Gonzalez Lara was taken from his home in Cuernavaca and jailed in Penal de Barrientos in Tlalnepantla, a rough industrial suburb in the northern part of sprawling Mexico City. Although he posted bail, he is reportedly still being held in custody.
CNN broadcaster Carmen Aristegui wrote in an email that authorities confirmed the arrest at 5 p.m.
“No one has officially recognized that he was arrested at 7:30 a.m.,” said Aristegui, the author of Marcial Maciel: Historia de un Criminal.
Gonzalez Lara, 33, married with a 1-year-old son, works in a physical fitness center. In 2010, St. Paul, Minn., attorney Jeff Anderson sued the Legionaries in Connecticut, where the order has its American headquarters, stating that Maciel abused Gonzalez Lara in several U.S. locations as he was growing up, and that the order knew the founder had a history of abusing seminarians.
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