‘They stole my hope’: In Mexico, La Luz del Mundo survivors protest the closure of the investigation

Naasón Joaquín, leader of the La Luz del Mundo evangelical church, is serving a sentence in the United States for child sexual abuse and faces new federal charges for organized crime, sex trafficking, and child pornography. The U.S. justice system defines the congregation as a cult and links it to money laundering activities. In Mexico, however, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) closed a seven-year investigation, claiming it found no grounds to prosecute any crime.

The victims of the Apostle of Jesus Christ, as Naasón Joaquín’s followers call him, feel betrayed. “I feel deceived. They stole my hope,” says Sochil Martin in a telephone interview. “The problem is that in Mexico there is a marriage, a pact, between the government and La Luz del Mundo,” she laments.

Martin and her husband, Sharim Guzmán, 40 and 41 years old respectively, were the first to speak out against the crimes committed by the leaders of the evangelical congregation. Their accusations have reached the authorities and have also become public knowledge; they have supported other victims, encouraging them to come forward; they have exposed the links between church members and the political and judicial apparatus; and through constant travel between Mexico and the United States, they have dedicated a large part of their lives to the pursuit of justice in both countries.

For this reason, they feel betrayed by the decision made by Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) just days after Ernestina Godoy, an official very close to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, took over as head of the agency.

This week, a day after EL PAÍS revealed the Attorney General’s Office had shelved the case, Sheinbaum referred to Godoy as “a historic feminist and a lifelong human rights defender.” Martin, who challenged the Attorney General’s Office’s decision in court, says: “It’s easy to label anyone a feminist.” The activist criticizes the fact that Godoy, who has been in office for four months, did not try to contact the victims of La Luz del Mundo before shelving the investigation. “She didn’t care,” says Martin. “She literally has all the power in her hands to bring justice to many people. I have a daughter, and I’m worried about the children inside [the congregation]. What the president said is a blatant lie.”

The Attorney General’s Office notified Martin in early January of its decision not to pursue criminal charges against the church leaders in question, confirming the impunity they have enjoyed in Mexico for decades. The accusations in the United States depict how La Luz del Mundo operated based on the financial and sexual exploitation of its followers, who were taught to show unwavering obedience to the church’s leader — from Naasón’s grandfather, the founder, to his father, and finally to Naasón himself.

When Naasón was arrested in the United States in 2019, the evangelical church used its religious influence and financial power in Mexico to intimidate and coerce the victims into remaining silent. In addition, Naasón’s accomplices destroyed evidence.

An empire of that scale would be impossible to understand without the hierarchy’s ties to the political elite — first in Jalisco, where the church was founded, and now at the federal level — ties that Martín and Guzmán have denounced consistently. Some influential members of the congregation have risen to the front lines of politics through Morena, Mexico’s ruling party, including former congressman Hamlet García Almaguer and senator Emmanuel Reyes Carmona, both outspoken defenders of the Apostle of Jesus Christ’s innocence. Other individuals linked to the church ran for judgeships in 2024 and won. García Almaguer even attempted to become attorney general. “They are La Luz del Mundo’s quota within Morena, and from there they shield the sect,” Guzmán says. “They are like unions: they provide money and votes, and in return they get representation.”

Last September, the couple took advantage of President Sheinbaum’s visit to Mexicali, Baja California, to deliver — through an intermediary — a letter urging her to press the Attorney General’s Office to bring the case before the courts after seven years of waiting.

“We are concerned for the safety of the victims who have escaped and those who remain within this organization,” they stated in the letter , adding that “in recent years” they had received no updates from the FGR on the progress of the investigation.

In the interview, Guzmán details all the obstacles they faced from the FGR authorities, such as refusing to receive them in their offices or summoning them to Mexico City with barely two days’ notice — even though they live on the U.S. border — and without providing travel expenses. “The investigation didn’t move forward because they wanted it that way, because they had the evidence,” he says.

In the letter to Sheinbaum, they urged her to prevent Mexico from “becoming a haven of impunity for transnational crimes.” Guzmán laments the protection afforded to leaders of the evangelical church in Mexico and the lack of protection for victims. “I would ask the president to break the pact they have with La Luz del Mundo, both within her party, Morena, and in the institutions,” he says. Martin is less optimistic: “I’m tired of pretending there will be justice in Mexico. But, at least, I hope the president makes a small change and leaves office with some integrity.”

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