Lawyer for victims of La Luz del Mundo assures that they will go after the leaders of the church and there will be more complaints

By Luis Hernández Ojesto M. and Francisco Cuevas

After the sentence to 16 years in prison for Naasón Joaquín García, leader of La Luz del Mundo, the lawyer who represents several of his victims assured that they will file civil lawsuits against the church leaders who have been complicit in sexual abuse.

"We have some names that we know that, at the very least, have played a role in perpetuating the abuse and silencing the victims," ​​said attorney Jonati Yaddison during an interview with Telemundo News correspondent Francisco Cuevas that aired on Monday. .

Among the people with whom Yaddison has been in contact are members who claim to have suffered sexual abuse from Samuel Joaquín Flores, father of the current leader of the evangelical church, who also led the organization at the time.

García pleaded guilty earlier this month to abusing three girls, when he reached an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office to avoid a costly trial for the state and in which the victims would have had to relive traumatic episodes.

"I denounced him because of the danger he represents."

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However, for many of them the agreement of the Prosecutor's Office with who calls himself the 'apostle of Jesus Christ' constitutes a "mockery".

“(I lived) extortion, trafficking, abuse, rape, labor, in all the ways that a human being can be abused is the way that Naasón Joaquín abused me and abused the five women who also reported to the California Prosecutor's Office.

The California Prosecutor's Office let us all down," Sochil Martín, the first woman who denounced the leader, said in an interview with Hoy Día.

"How is it possible that if Naasón was given a historic bail of 90 million dollars in California, knowing his danger, they are only giving him 16 years and eight months," Moisés Padilla, who denounced the Flores for alleged sexual abuse in 1998.

[“He abused, raped, drugged these girls and me too,” recounts a victim of the leader of La Luz del Mundo who worked with him]

Of the 19 charges that Garcia was charged with, he was only sentenced for the three of which he pleaded guilty.

Among these, for forcing two minors to perform oral sex and a lewd act with a minor under 15 years of age.

But the danger has not abated for the victims who have come forward

, said the attorney representing five anonymous whistleblowers identified only by the pseudonym Jane Doe.

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Many have received threats "consistently" and are afraid to speak in public, Yaddison said.

“After the sentence, some of their identities have been leaked and exposed.

So the threats and trying to silence their voices have continued,” he said.

"People have called other members of the church to attack them and I think that just because their names, their faces and their photos have been leaked, that poses a real risk to their safety," added the lawyer.

[Noticias Telemundo Investiga reveals how the 'Unconditional Ones' group of the La Luz del Mundo church operates]

Yaddison assured that the evidence that his legal team is gathering points to the hierarchy of La Luz del Mundo and will constitute another opportunity for the five anonymous complainants to obtain "justice in the correct way."

Under the criminal charge, to which Garcia pleaded guilty, the victims could receive a maximum compensation of $10,000.

However, by civil means, the amount could be much higher, Yaddison explained, although it will depend on many considerations such as the availability of funds from García and the church in the United States.

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In the end, Yaddison considered that there are other factors that have influenced the case and that they have to do in his opinion with the fact that they are victims of minority communities in the United States, where the main media in English have given little coverage to the case.

"You hear about other cults, like Nxivm that got a lot of publicity and he [Keith Raniere] was sentenced to 120 years. In this case, the abuse is the worst you can imagine. And people haven't heard about him and what happened with his criminal sentence. And I think the fact that it hasn't received much media attention has to do with the fact that it's about minorities," he said.