The religious leader who confessed his abuse of minors in the US had the premise of instructing his followers that he, as an “apostle”, had the right to have sexual relations with children.
Naasón Joaquín García, whom his followers call the apostle of Jesus Christ, in the US was accused of sexual abuse of minors, rape, possession of child pornography and human trafficking. He himself pleaded guilty before the American justice and this Wednesday his sentence will be announced.
García is a leader of the church “La Luz del Mundo, has thousands of followers in Latin American countries, including Paraguay.
In our country it has established three temples, in the cities of San Lorenzo, Lambaré and Ñemby, in the Central department.
Garcia was detained by the FBI on June 5, 2019, at the Los Angeles airport after landing on a private jet. Inside his luggage, an iPad was found, where the police found a video of a naked 14-year-old boy, masked and receiving oral sex. The woman who performed fellatio, according to the testimonies presented by the Prosecutor’s Office, was the adolescent’s aunt. In recent days it had been announced that the judge had authorized that recording to be shown to the 12 members of the jury during the trial. Other images of minors having sex were found on their electronic devices. Joaquín, self-proclaimed servant of God, claims to have more than five million faithful throughout the world, although his critics claim that the real figure does not exceed one million. In Mexico, where the church was founded in the 1920s, it has more than 190,000 followers, according to the latest census.
According to the newspaper El País of Spain. the case in California uncovered that the religious leader surrounded himself with a group of maidens, girls and adolescents who were instructed on the principle that serving him and being touched by him was a blessing. Joaquín García assumed power after the death in December 2014 of his father, Samuel Joaquín, who headed the church for more than 50 years. The organization was founded by his grandfather, Eusebio Joaquín, also known as Brother Aarón. The Prosecutor’s Office assured that, under the narrative that Naasón was part of the “lineage chosen by God”, everything was allowed and that the abuses were facilitated by the church machinery: with women in charge of recruiting the girls, as well as a cupola of ministers and unconditional members who were in charge of covering up the crimes.
“The Light of the World is a criminal organization, Naasón did not act alone,” Sochil Martin, who belonged to his close circle for years and was the first person to publicly denounce the abuses, said in an interview with EL PAÍS this week. Martin affirms that she was abused in her youth by Samuel Joaquín and that Naasón Joaquín asked her to recruit several young girls. A civil lawsuit targeting the church’s president and his closest group is still pending.
