Naasón Joaquín García in court in California (USA), in June 2019.Al Seib (AP)
New scandal in the church of La Luz del Mundo. The US Department of Justice filed this Tuesday two new criminal charges against Naasón Joaquín García, known by his followers as the Apostle of Jesus Christ, for production and possession of child pornography. The Mexican religious leader, who was sentenced in 2022 by a California state court to nearly 17 years in prison for child sexual abuse, is being charged in federal court for the first time and faces a maximum of 40 years in prison if found guilty.
The charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California are based on a case against a victim who was 16 years old at the time the crimes were committed and whose identity has not been disclosed. According to the court summary, Joaquín García always forced the victim to engage in “explicit sexual behavior” in order to record her and save these images. The alleged events occurred on May 6, 2019, nine days before the self-proclaimed Servant of God received a tribute on his 50th birthday at the Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico’s highest cultural venue, attended by senators, politicians and ambassadors.
Brother Naasón, as he is known to his followers, was arrested on June 3, 2019 at the Los Angeles airport for more than twenty crimes, including rape, sexual abuse, extortion and human trafficking in California. At the time of his arrest, he was carrying an iPad on which authorities said he had stored explicit videos of the 16-year-old victim, which are now the subject of a new indictment. The indictment details at least five videos found on his electronic devices.
The religious leader has been embroiled in a difficult legal battle for three years and hired Alan Jackson, a high-profile lawyer whose clients include actor Kevin Spacey and producer Harvey Weinstein, to respond to the allegations. Last June, three days before the trial began in Los Angeles, Joaquín García reached a deal with California prosecutors and pleaded guilty to three felony counts of child sexual abuse in exchange for a reduced sentence of 16 years and eight months. If convicted, he could have spent his life behind bars. The church, which says it has seven million followers in more than 60 countries, continues to defend his innocence and continues to view him as the highest leader of his community, even though he is a self-confessed sex offender.
The plea deal in California sparked outrage among victims, who accused them of not being consulted and denying them the chance to face their attacker in court. At the heart of the state’s case were five anonymous complainants who were among a group of girls who reported sexual abuse when they were minors and who were despised by their community for speaking out against who they believed was him be God’s representative in the state. Country. However, the Jane Does (the generic name for complainants who ask not to be named) and their families were able to confront the religious leader during the sentencing hearing in June last year. “You suck, Naason,” Jane Doe 4, the defendant’s niece, told him. “You are not a god, you cannot even be considered a man.”
At the same time, Joaquín García faces at least two civil lawsuits filed by former members of his congregation, including Jane Does. He also has an ongoing investigation in Mexico that has been progressing since his arrest in the United States in 2019, but which has not reached court. The U.S. justice system is scheduled to appear before a federal judge in the coming weeks, but an exact date was not given.
“As survivors of the La Luz del Mundo sect, we will continue to fight for justice for the abuses committed by the leaders of this sect,” wrote Sharim García, husband of Sochil Martin, former assistant to the religious leader and publicly denouncing first wife Naasón Joaquín. The faithful who left the church have called for the investigation to move forward in Mexico, where the church was founded in 1926 and where it has most of its parishioners. La Luz del Mundo has not yet commented on the new charges on its official platforms.
The conclusion of the case in the US state of California did not exclude the possibility that Naasón Joaquín García would face a new case in federal court or even in another US state. It was just over a year for the leader of La Luz del Mundo, one of Mexico’s most powerful religious groups, once again facing a legal scandal on the other side of the border. The crime of producing child pornography is punishable by a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 30 years in prison, while possession is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
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