Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Sonsonate, El Salvador · 2025

El Salvador: priest convicted of raping a parishioner over three years in the parish house — first Central American conviction from an adult clergy-abuse survivor

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

priest, Iglesia La Resurrección, Sonsonate

Organization

Iglesia La Resurrección, Sonsonate, Diocese of Sonsonate

Spiritual nexus

A parish priest used his residence inside church property and his standing over a young congregant to commit repeated rape, with the diocesan bishop informed and inactive for ten years.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Other spiritual authority or belief

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2024-09-01 · conviction

    Segundo Juzgado de Sentencia de Sonsonate, El Salvador. Father Víctor Manuel Campos Alvarenga was convicted by the Second Sentencing Court of Sonsonate and sentenced to 12 years in prison for statutory rape by prevalimiento (abuse of authority) against a young woman he repeatedly raped over three years in the parish house of La Resurrección church. Bishop Constantino Barrera Morales had received the report in 2014 and took no action for a decade. Reporting frames the case as the first in Central America in which an adult victim of clergy abuse secured a conviction.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • prevalimiento — abuse of clerical authority over an adult parishioner
  • control of access within the parish house

Primary record

Sources

investigative journalism investigative report 'Obispo de Sonsonate supo durante una década que un sacerdote abusaba adolescentes y no hizo nada', GatoEncerrado, 10 abr. 2025.

Investigative Salvadoran outlet detailing the victim's account, the parish setting, and the decade of episcopal inaction.

national newspaper court reporting sentencing report 'Sacerdote condenado a 12 años de prisión por abuso contra una menor', Newsweek en Español, 14 sept. 2024.

Court-outcome report confirming the 12-year sentence and the prevalimiento charge.

Related record

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