Sochil Martin, 33, was raised within the cult of La Luz del Mundo church, whose leader, Naasón Joaquín García, has been accused of child sexual abuse
A "sexual servant" for a religious leader.
Sochil Martin, a 33-year-old Californian, claims that the so-called "apostle" of the church La Luz del Mundo, Naasón Joaquín García, Not only sexually assaulted her repeatedly but instead forced her to recruit minors for them to go sexually exploited and abused by him.
In conversation with BBC Mundo, Martin shared that it was her aunt who introduced her at 9 years old before Samuel Joaquín Flores, the father of Naasón and former "apostle", to participate in "erotic dances" for the then leader of the church.
What followed, continues, were more of twenty years of physical assaults and labor exploitation as an assistant to Naasón García and employee, without pay, of the church's communications department.
From the age of 16, he says, "Naasón began to abuse me in all aspects."
Garcia is under preventive prison without bail since June last year, when he was arrested along with two other church members named as alleged accomplices.
He was then charged in Los Angeles Superior Court on charges of child sexual abuse, child pornography, human trafficking, and extortion.
The judicial process, however, has progressed with stumbles. And, for now, García has been favored.
On April 7, a California appeals court determined that the Superior Court made technical procedural failures by failing to timely conduct the preliminary hearing of the case and ordered to dismiss it.
The prosecution responded to BBC Mundo the next day that it was reviewing the court's decision and that the ruling "It is not definitive until past 30 days since it was issued. "
He also confirmed that García is still in custody and that they plan to charge him again since the decision "does not limit our ability to do so."
Garcia she denies the allegations, as do the other two women named.
The Church of La Luz del Mundo claims to have some 5 million followers in 58 countries around the world, of which one.5 million are in Mexico. The official data that exists in the country are from the 2010 census, where 188 were registered,326 as his followers.
In October 2018, Sochil Martin began working with the US and Mexican authorities in the investigation against García and became a key witness.
They followed four women, Including three minors, who claim to be victims of abuse, and on their testimonies, the California prosecution worked to file the complaint against the "apostle" in early June.
Martin filed a civil suit on his side in early February in a Los Angeles court accusing the Light of the World, Naasón Joaquín García, and at least 12 other people related to García and the religious institution of forced labor, human trafficking, sexual assault and other crimes.
"I know that Naasón and the people who are in that lawsuit are the abusers, those who kept quiet, helped, brought him (victims). (Those victims) are children and young people who they couldn't say anything and I know because one was me"Says Martin.
With the lawsuit, the 33-year-old girl demands that she be paid compensation for damages in a sum to be settled in court.
The spokesperson for La Luz del Mundo sent a statement to this media in which he condemns Martin's accusations.
"It is absolutely false that The Light of the World Church practices convincing boys and girls from the community to allow themselves to be abused by the religious leaders of this institution, or of any person, we categorically deny these indications, ”says the letter.
They also point out that "economic contributions are used for the purpose for which they are intended, and not for enrichment of the religious leaders of our community. "
About Martin, they say "anticipate" that the plaintiff pursues "an economic interest."
How it all started
Sochil Martin grew up in a family that for generations had followers of La Luz del Mundo church.
She was raised by her aunt and since she was a child, she says, she worked for the institution.
“For you it is normal. They put you from a very young age to sell tamales, to sell your clothes. Every time there was a party or Samuel visited it was to buy him a new car or give him an offering, ”he describes.
Those "offerings," he adds, could be as much as $ 10,000 or as much as $ 100,000.
“It depended on how much you loved him and how much your faith is. The more you give, the more the blessings are, ”he says.
According to Martin, families that did not have enough money for the offerings, "had to lend their names so that (Naasón) Joaquín's family would buy property."
In addition, he says, he met a family whose parents "gave their daughters" so that participate in dances in the house of the former "apostle" Samuel, died in 2014.
The lawsuit document indicates that Martin's aunt told her that she “had been chosen” by the “apostle” Samuel at age 9 and that this was a “wonderful and special blessing”, in addition to sharing that she had done so. same when I was younger.
The "recruiters" of children trained them to dance "erotically" before him, the complaint indicates.
According to Martin's testimony, for four years she danced privately for Samuel “caressing him as he had been trained and allowing he will touch her as he wishes"
Naason
Martin was 16 years old when Naasón Joaquín García assumed the ministry of the East Los Angeles church.
From that moment, she began working with him as a producer of the radio station programming for the church, the lawsuit describes.
The young woman "worked more than forty hours a week while he was still going to school, without receiving any payment for his work, ”the document states.
The sexual assaults by García, according to Martin, began when he began to touch her in his private office.
When Martin complained to his aunt about these incidents, "he told me that I was wrong, that I was having thoughts of Satan."
At age 20, according to the lawsuit, Martin had sex with the religious leader for months, until when he was 21 years old he tried to leave the church going to live with his brothers, who were not members of the cult, to another city in California.
But the young woman ended up going back to church under pressure, the complaint details.
Upon returning to Los Angeles, Garcia's sexual abuse turned "More aggressive" and they wounded the alleged victim.
"Rapes were seen as salvation"Says Martin.
“If I didn't do very strong things that he asked me, not only he would scold me. My aunt said to me: ‘God forgive you if you cause that sadness to the servant of God. If he asks you for something, you do it ”, he describes.
Martin moved to Ensenada, Mexico, where he married in an arranged marriage with another member of the church and by orders of the then "apostle" Samuel, according to the lawsuit.
He continued working for the church without receiving payment and had a daughter, the judicial text details.
"The worst year of my life"
It was in 2015, which Martin describes as "the worst of my life", that the young became a "recruiter" for children and youth to satisfy the sexual demands of the church director, according to his testimony.
The young woman describes that, by orders of the "apostle", she was transferred to Guadalajara, where the church has its main headquarters, for periods of several months and separated from her husband and daughter.
There he met Azalea Rangel Meléndez, indicated in the accusation as "recruiter" and "main secretary" of García, who is fugitive of US justice.
The lawsuit explicitly describes alleged sexual abuse events this year.
On one occasion, the document indicates, García recorded the moment when he raped Martin.
The religious leader asked the "recruiters" “Photographs of children in underwear” once he approved of the minors being "Presented before him", indicates the accusation.
According to Martin's testimony, members of the "council of bishops" and some of their wives also participated in the so-called "recruitment" and in return "were awarded with ministries in the best seats of the church or awards such as purses and jewelry."
At this time, Martin says she was forced to have sex with García and Meléndez, in addition to being beaten for refusing to have a sexual exchange with a 14-year-old boy in front of him.
"What I saw and lived was sexual abuse of children ”, says the applicant.
"AND how so many people agreed: parents, ministers, your family, so many people who agreed and that there was nothing I could do, "he describes.
According to the lawsuit, Martin returned to Ensenada and attempted suicide.
The exit
Martin justifies his actions by saying that he had no notion of what lived and happened in the church.
"You think you serve like a maiden and that you are pure and good. They tell you that you are going to be a saint if you keep quiet, if you bring, do and put ”, she explains.
It was her husband, she says, who brought her into account after reading some messages that the young woman had exchanged with García by cell phone.
"In the messages we talked about things that we had done, what he wanted to do, what he commanded me to do that involved other women, whom they are accusing," she says.
According to her testimony, the religious leader tried to keep her away from her husband with trips outside Ensenada, where she lived with her family.
“He did this not only to me, but to other married girls as well. They kept their husbands busy in politics or in Berea (the church's communications department). ”
Although, she says, at times she “continued to believe” in the church, her husband influenced her so that the family abandoned the cult three years ago.
Martin says that a month after doing so, he contacted the parents "who began to take their daughters to the pastoral home in Naasón."
"To those parents I apologized and sorryBut I also asked them to testify to the authorities. I did not care at the time if they also carried me between my legs. But they did not accept it and they stayed there, ”he says.
In October 2018, Martin began cooperating with the authorities in Mexico and the United States and became a key witness in the investigation against García.
The young woman maintains that she received threats and was harassed by several people close to the church last year.
Now a California resident, Martin says he has attended trauma therapy and that it helps a lot to "listen to the stories of the survivors."
Meanwhile, García has been detained for almost a year in a delayed criminal process and through which four judges have passed.
You willthe possibility of bail (Initially set at $ 50 million) in July last year, after two law enforcement officers testified that they found Garcia's sex videos of him appearing alongside a minor, as well as child pornography on a defendant's phone.
The church then said in a statement that the judge's decision to deny bail "Does not imply guilt, much less that the case has been lost, rather his defense continues ".
Pending to know if García will be released from prison and if new charges will be filed against him, Martin's lawyers demonstrated after learning of the appeal court decision in favor of the pastor and assured that Martin “remains committed to continuing in the He fights against these injustices and continues his case against Naasón. "
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