P. Ricardo Yesquén Paiva

Padre Ricardo Yesquén Paiva was first accused publicly in November 2023, when a Peruvian woman, Ana María Quispe, began posting on social media about being sexually abused as a child by Yesquén and by Padre Eleuterio Vásquez Gonzáles, both of whom were assigned in the early 2000’s to Chiclayo’s San José Obrero parish, to which Ana María Quispe and her family belonged.

Later it would be revealed that Quispe first reported her abuse by Yesquén to Chiclayo bishop Robert Prevost in 2020.  The Covid shutdown had started, so they spoke by phone. In 2022, she recovered her memory of being abused by Vásquez. In April 2023, she met in person with Prevost, along with two other young women reporting abuse by Vásquez.

Quispe reported being abused at different times by both Yesquén and Vásquez; the two other victims alleged abuse by Vásquez only.

In later media coverage, Quispe recounted that in 2005, when she was nine years old, her mother sent her to deliver a cupcake to the popular Vásquez, who was known as Padre Lute.  At the rectory, she instead encountered only Yesquén, who allegedly sat her on his lap, kissed her, and put his tongue in her mouth.

According to Quispe, Prevost told the three women that he believed them and encouraged them to report to civil authorities. In the meantime, he said, he would tell Vásquez to leave his parish while the women’s claims were investigated. As for Padre Yesquén, the bishop told them, he was already out of ministry due to poor health.

The three women reported their abuse to prosecutors, who soon dropped the case against the two priests because of statute of limitations.

Yesquén also didn’t face disciplinary proceedings by the church: In September 2024, the Chiclayo diocese stated that because of  Yesquén’s health, a canonical case against him had not been pursued:

“In regard to the case of Fr. Ricardo Yesquén, given the serious degenerative illness he is suffering, he does not have the capacity to defend himself, so that a case against him cannot be opened. He has not exercised the priestly ministry for years.”