COCHABAMBA (BOLIVIA)
Crux [Denver CO]
January 6, 2026
By Eduardo Campos Lima
SÃO PAULO, Brazil – The Bolivian Network of Church Abuse Survivors says it still hopes that an Uruguayan laicized priest involved in several abuse cases against children in Bolivia will be punished for his crimes, after Uruguay decided not to extradite him to the Andean nation in December.
Former Father Juan José Sant’Anna Trinidad, also known as Padre Juanjo, is accused of abusing at least 30 students of a boarding school in Tapacarí, in the region of Cochabamba, in Bolivia.
The scandal emerged in October of 2007, when the first accusation against Juanjo was brought to the authorities. He used to work at the Monseñor Ángel Gelmi boarding school and was in charge of its male sector. His victims were between 6 and 18 years old.
In November of that year, Juanjo was officially charged by Cochabamba’s Social Management Departmental Service to the District Attorney’s office. Shortly later, he ran away and got back to Uruguay.
Over the past few years, he had a number of encounters with Bolivian and Uruguayan journalists in Salto, the city where he was born and in which he lives with his parents. The most recent of such occasions involved a journalist of the Uruguayan newspaper El País and occurred in August of 2025. A few weeks later, Bolivia’s judiciary demanded his extradition.
According to El País, the Uruguayan judge Matías Porciúncula considered that the legal claim was barred by the statute of limitations. The crime of abuse allegedly perpetrated by Juanjo in Bolivia, which doesn’t have a statute of limitations there, corresponds in Uruguay to sexual assault, with a 10-year statute of limitations.
Given that Juanjo was declared in contempt of court by the Bolivian justice in 2011, the statute of limitations was attained in 2021, ruled Porciúncula, who then denied the extradition on December 10.
“Of course, the decision by the Uruguayan judiciary caused us tremendous disappointment in judicial systems. For us, it is painful to think that deadlines, procedural formalities, and legal maneuvering matter more than the truth and the genuine pursuit of justice,” Edwin Alvarado, a spokesman for the Bolivian Network of Abuse Survivors, told Crux.
The network waits not only for the Bolivian State to appeal Uruguay’s decision regarding Juanjo’s extradition, but also for other potential measures that can be taken in order to ensure he’s punished for his crimes.
According to Wilder Flores, a founding member of the Survivors’ Network, the group has been analyzing a number of legal possibilities.
“Violence against children may be categorized as torture, which is a crime against humanity according to the Organization of American States,” saidFlores.
Juanjo arrived in Tapacarí, a poor town located about 50 miles away from Cochabamba, in 2005, when he was 34. In the boarding school, he was the principal of 72 boy students. His room was on the same level as the boys’ dorms.
According to the Bolivian newspaper El Deber, Juanjo would select his victims during the night and invite them to his room in order to watch videos. There, he would force them to engage in sexual acts.
One of the sisters in charge of the girl’s sector eventually heard the confession of a boy regarding Juanjo’s crimes. She heard other victims and ended up confronting the priest and taking the case to the authorities.
Juanjo rapidly fled to his parents’ house in Salto. In 2010, only a couple of years later, an Uruguayan journalist found him there and interviewed him and his mother. He confirmed the accusations were true and said he received help in order to deal with the problem.
In 2011, the Bolivian Church laicized Juanjo. He kept living quietly in Salto. In 2023, another journalist approached him in the city, and he avoided talking to the reporter.
The Uruguayan Church states that it has never had any affiliation with Juanjo. Cardinal Daniel Sturla, the Archbishop of Montevideo, told the press that “if he is guilty, he will have to answer for the situations he has lived through.”
Father José García also lives in Salto, but he doesn’t know Juanjo. He heard about the case in the press and saw how Juanjo’s address became publicly known on social media.
“Those facts go against our priestly life, against faith, against humanity. It’s sad news and affects not only the Bolivian Church, but the Church in the whole world,” García told Crux.
He emphasized that the Church has been very clear in condemning such crimes, especially with the most recent popes, laicizing the criminal priests and taking their cases to civil authorities.
“But, of course, it’s a very painful theme for us all,” he said.