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	Mexican Priest Accused of Sexually Abusing Boys Latin American Herald Tribune January 13, 2009 http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=325309&CategoryId=14091 VERACRUZ, MEXICO — Authorities in the eastern Mexican town of Boca del Rio rescued 20 boys from an institution run by the Catholic Church where allegedly they were the targets of sexual abuse by a priest. Mayor Miguel Angel Yunes Marquez told a press conference that they had received complaints and statements from boys who were mistreated and subjected to sexual abuse by the Rev. Jose de Jesus Sandoval Gonzalez with the connivance of Sister Maria Guadalupe Zaragoza Barajas. Yunes said that the mothers of two alleged victims complained that the nun accepted payments of 500 pesos ($36.20) to take boys to the house of the priest, where he then abused them. Any boys who dared to mention what happened at the house were punished by making them eat hot peppers or spoiled food, or they were forced to kneel in the yard for four hours in the sun or on top of metal bottle caps and sleep with dogs all night or out in the open air. During his meeting with reporters, the mayor presented videotapes of the testimony of several boys who were rescued from the church-run institution and who are now being taken care of by the municipal family services agency. Yunes said that the city hall presented the criminal complaint on Dec. 15 and but decided to go public with the matter because prosecutors have dragged their feet. When consulted about it, the deputy attorney general of Veracruz state, Jose Luis Peri Perez, told reporters that the medical exams doctors conducted on the boys show no indications of penetration, but the investigation is continuing because the suspicion exists that the priest at least fondled the boys.
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