At least five videos in which the protagonist is a minor under 16 years of age are the evidentiary basis that supports the new criminal process, for production and possession of child pornography, that he will face in the United States. Naasón Joaquín García, church leader Light of the world, who is also sued in at least two civil actions filed by several women who accuse the religious leader of having enslaved and exploited them, sexually and at work.
According to the file consulted by HIGH LEVEL, The evidence that has allowed the new accusation against Joaquín García was stored on a tablet that was confiscated from him since his arrest at the airport in Los Angeles, California, in June 2019.
Naasón Merarí Joaquín García, 54, is serving a sentence of 16 years and 8 months in prison that was imposed on him – in 2022 – after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual abusecommitted against minors.
Now, the two new criminal charges are: Serious crimes because allegedly produced and possessed child sexual abuse material (CSAM), which are punishable by sentences of between 15 and 30 years in prison, and 5 to 10 years in prison, respectively.
Some of the details of this complaint are under reservation in the Court of the Central District of California, since it involves material of a sexual nature in which a minor, a victim whose identity will not be made known, participates under duress.
However, the indictment states that on May 6, 2019, García allegedly “knowingly employed, used, persuaded, induced, enticed and coerced a minor,” who was 16 years old at the time, to engage in “sexually explicit conduct” with the purpose of producing a visual representation” of it.
Unlike the criminal process that followed the self-proclaimed “apostle of Jesus Christ” since 2019, in which he negotiated with the Prosecutor’s Office to obtain a reduced sentence, after admitting to being responsible “for two counts of forced oral copulation against a minor, and one count of committing a lewd act upon a child,” The new accusation for producing and possessing child pornography is federal in nature.
That is to say, while the first case was carried out in the state jurisdiction of California, the second, formally notified in this month of October, is being handled by the US Federal Prosecutor’s Office, so – if a trial is reached and in this Joaquín García is found guilty – he must be transferred to a federal prison, different from the penitentiary institution for men in the state of California where he is located.
punitive damages
In addition to this new criminal process against him, in which he also has the option of pleading guilty, Naasón Joaquín García, the Luz del Mundo church, and other senior leaders of that institution, are being sued civilly by several women who intend to obtain a economic reparation for the damage they suffered as members of that cult.
Identified as he inmate BS9418 In the prison located in the city of Chino, 56 kilometers from Los Angeles, Joaquín García spends his days in constant communication with his lawyers, who have filed dozens of motions to prevent these lawsuits from being successful.
In these events, the victims claim that the religious leader and his co-accused allegedly ran a sex trafficking ring who exploited them economically, while subjecting them to constant sexual abuse.
For example, in one of the lawsuits it can be read that one of these women served, since she was nine years old, “as an erotic dancer and sexual servant” of Samuel Joaquín Flores, former leader of the Light of the World, and father of Naasón Joaquín García.
“Over the next twenty-two years, she was trafficked through California and Mexico, forced to serve Samuel, and his son and successor Naasón Joaquín García, raped dozens of times and suffered numerous severe beatings, causing physical, emotional and mental damage that left her They still afflict us today,” the writing adds.
Likewise, this victim’s servitude was not only sexual, since from the age of sixteen she worked approximately 30,000 hours or more, including nights and weekends, without any payment from the defendant and the church.
“He did so under threat of serious physical harm, ostracism, financial destruction and spiritual condemnation,” in addition to Joaquín García and his father, who died in 2014, allegedly “were actively helped by several members of the senior management” of the church, including members of the so-called Council of Bishops.
The latter, the lawsuit says, would have provided the “apostles (sic) young children – including their own family members – for sexual purposes.” For all this, the plaintiff woman, who was able to escape the cult until she was 30 years old, seeks compensation for all the decades in which she suffered “physical, emotional and financial damages.”
The Light of the World church was founded in Guadalajara in 1926 by Eusebio Joaquín González, who called himself Aarón Joaquín. This was the grandfather of Naasón Joaquín García. Its headquarters are still in that city in western Mexico, in addition to being present in about 60 countries, where this cult claims to have up to five million followers.
From December 2022, three platforms streaming They have broadcast documentary series that show the stories of the victims of this church. HBO addressed the issue in production “Behind the veil. Surviving the Light of the World Church”; followed in June of this year A&E with “Secrets of the Apostle of Evil”; while last September it premiered in Netflix the Serie “The darkness of the Light of the World.”
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Surya Palacios Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal and human rights analysis. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.