-Published: Friday, November 8, 2019-

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A San José Court judge ordered freedom without pre-trial measures for a man suspected of abandoning his nephew in the Arizona desert in 2018. The suspect turns out to be a Roman Catholic priest.

According to the Prosecutor's Office against Human Trafficking and Illicit Traffic of Migrants, the judge who analyzed the case did not accept the prosecution's request and released the suspect, surnamed Brenes-Villalobos, without any precautionary pre-trial measure.

The prosecution had asked the judge to impose precautionary measures such as the usual ones: signing a form at a control appointment once a month before the prosecution, not leaving the country, submitting his passport at the court and having no contact with victims or witnesses.

However, "the judge ordered the release of the suspect without precautionary measures, then the prosecutor appealed the resolution," said the Prosecutor's Office in its statement. "Now, the Public Ministry is waiting for the criminal court, to set a new hearing, which will reiterate the need for Brenes to have these precautionary measures to ensure his connection with the criminal process. ”

After the arrest of the suspect in Guanacaste Wednesday, judicial agents revealed that the man worked as a priest at the Catholic Church of San Jeronimo in the district of Sardinal in the province of Guanacaste.

The Catholic Church announced Thursday that Brenes already was suspended from his position as a priest.

According to the Catholic Church headquarter in Tilarán, Guanacaste, due to "this investigation process, in order to ensure the clarification of the truth, it was decided to remove Father Brenes from his occupations as a pastor so he can have all the possible availability for cope with the process,” said Manuel Eugenio Salazar Mora, in a statement addressed to the parishioners of the church. He is the bishop of Tilarán-Liberia.

Wednesday judicial agents detained Brenes in Sardinal in the Province of Guanacaste and accused him of trafficking in persons and abandoning an incapacitated person.

Brenes is accused of letting his nephew, a 6-year-old Costa Rican boy, at the Arizona-Mexico border June 19, 2018.

The plight of the Costa Rican boy made headlines in the United States, but the uncle was not identified as a Roman Catholic priest at the time.

Judicial agents said the case has been under investigation for nearly a year. The man returned to Costa Rica a day after Border Patrol agents picked up the boy at the border, they said.

 The Washington Times said that the boy endured 100-degree heat and that he told agents that the uncle had told him that agents would pick him up. The child was trying to join his mother, who also is an illegal immigrant in the United States, the newspaper said at the time. That section of the U.S. border with Mexico is notorious for the ease by which illegal immigrants enter the United States. Just like the boy, many just cross the border and wait for a Border Patrol vehicle because they usually claim refugee status so that they are set free to await a hearing before an immigration judge. The boy crossed south of Lukeville, Arizona.

The boy initially went to a government facility in Tucson, Arizona. Judicial agents said that Costa Rican consular workers in the United State managed to deliver the boy to the mother.

The case of the uncle presents some interesting jurisdictional problems. Although investigators in Costa Rica have received information from the United States, there is no certainty that the man ever actually was in that country. Presumably, the man left Costa Rica with the boy legally.  Costa Rica does not extradite its citizens to other countries to face trial.



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Should a judge order new pre-trial measures due to the alleged human trafficking case of a child?   We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com