Eva García de Joaquín, mother of the leader of the La Luz del Mundo church, is now being held in a New York prison to answer for two counts of organized crime conspiracy and sex trafficking, sources from Univision Noticias revealed.
80 years old, García de Joaquín is in the custody of the US Marshals service, but it is kept secret in which prison she has been placed.
“She is already in New York,” a US federal official told this medium, which coincides with what other sources familiar with the investigation into the La Luz del Mundo case have revealed.
García de Joaquín was arrested at her luxurious home in Los Angeles, California, on September 10 and spent a few days in a prison in that town. Subsequently, federal marshals transported her to a prison in New York.
His first appearance in federal court in Manhattan remains pending. He faces up to two life sentences, according to prosecutors.
District Judge Alka Sagar ordered on September 10 that García de Joaquín be held in a facility separate from the general population of the prison where she arrived, possibly considering that she would be a vulnerable detainee due to her advanced age.
His son, Naasón Joaquín García, who has led the church since 2014, pleaded not guilty in late September to six charges, including racketeering conspiracy, child exploitation and sex trafficking through the use of force.
With the arrival of Eva García de Joaquín to a New York prison, there are now three members of this family who are in federal custody in that location. The leader of La Luz del Mundo and his nephew, Joram Núñez Joaquín, are in a federal prison in Brooklyn, after being transported from prisons in California and Illinois.
Joram Núñez Joaquín is accused of posing as a lawyer to prevent victims from approaching the authorities. He was arrested on September 10 at a temple in Chicago, where he was leading a religious service.
The US Department of Justice assures that García de Joaquín participated in the sexual abuse of minors along with her husband, Samuel Joaquín Flores, who ruled the cult for five decades until his death 11 years ago.
He also benefited from the alleged illicit enrichment of his family, through tithes and gifts given by thousands of faithful in almost 60 countries, alleges the Prosecutor’s Office.
But the church rejects the accusations against Naasón Joaquín’s mother. In a recent statement, the congregation says that García de Joaquín’s arrest is a legal strategy to pressure his son into accepting crimes he did not commit.
“We denounce the unjust imprisonment of Sister Eva,” declared Sara Pozos, spokesperson for the congregation, in a video broadcast on September 23. “We consider that the presentation of charges clearly demonstrates that the Prosecutor’s Office is capable of bending the law,” he added.
García de Joaquín’s lawyers did not respond to the messages sent by this medium, in which they have been requested for an interview or comments related to the case.
‘The House of Versace’ by Samuel Joaquín’s widow
Following the arrest of Eva García de Joaquín, agents from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office searched her mansion in Los Angeles and found, in a safe hidden under a bed, more than $200,000 in cash, gold coins, jewelry and a USB flash drive wrapped in jade, a court document describes.
That home is known by the faithful as ‘the Versace house’, because all the furniture and decorative items are from that Italian fashion brand, Samuel Joaquín’s favorite.
The authorities detail in their report that the house has gold leaf on the moldings. The property is registered in the name of the church and is valued at almost one million dollars, according to documents from the Los Angeles County Public Registry of Property Office that have been reviewed by Univision Noticias. ‘Sister Eva’, as they also call her, received the residence as an inheritance.
The government seeks to seize that and other properties in California linked to the Joaquíns where child abuse allegedly occurred.
“Samuel and García de Joaquín spent the donations from La Luz del Mundo as if the Church’s coffers were their own bank accounts and they lived off the free work of the members of the Church,” reads the document from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
“Samuel bought expensive gifts for García de Joaquín, such as watches and high-end jewelry,” he adds. “García de Joaquín continues taking expensive flights and being driven by young faithful of La Luz del Mundo in luxury cars, all financed by donations from the Church.”
Video Luxuries, front men and victims who trafficked money: the allegations of corruption in La Luz del Mundo
The abuses attributed to Eva García
The Southern District of New York highlights that, in the late 1980s, García de Joaquín facilitated the abuse of a nine-year-old girl by her husband.
Likewise, the case of a 16-year-old teenager who was forced to participate in an orgy with her partner somewhere in Mexico, in the 1990s, stands out.
Another case that the Prosecutor’s Office document includes is that of Martha Serna, a Californian woman who, recently converted to the cult, at the end of the 1960s, moved to the church colony, known as Hermosa Provincia, in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“I was 15 years old when I went to the Province,” Serna said, in an interview with Univision Noticias. “When we returned here to Los Angeles that was when Eva put me in that room… And Eva called me and between the two of them they raped me,” he said with tears.
Hell, this woman says, didn’t stop there. «Now in the Province, since it was martyrdom, they did with me whatever they wanted. Samuel went into the little house where I lived… It was Chonita, Benita, Bertha and I, four girls and Samuel came from 5:00 am to the 5:00 am prayer. “At around 4:00 am he started to abuse us.”
The abuse that Martha Serna allegedly suffered stopped until, by orders of Samuel Joaquín, she married a stranger, who became a pastor. The couple traveled through Mexico and the United States for several years, supporting themselves by selling tamales. Until a few years ago they divorced.
«Eva, you and Samuel were like my parents. “I expected you to take care of me and protect me and you didn’t,” Serna said between sobs. “And I try, I try not to cry, but it is very strong because they took away my hopes, my dreams, they took everything from me.”
Another former believer of the church, ‘Esperanza’, who agreed to share her testimony requesting to hide her identity, told this medium that she was a victim of Samuel Joaquín and assures that his wife, Eva García, knew about the abuse of several minors.
“Everything they tell you to do there is approved by God,” said ‘Esperanza’, who alleges that she was a minor when she was recruited to be a maid for the then leader of La Luz del Mundo. “They want you to prepare as much as possible: half-naked first and then naked, and ‘sleep with him’ and many things like that,” she added.
«Eva saw me several times there in the houses. She watched me enter the bedrooms. She watched me enter and Samuel was already there. She watched everything, but she never did anything. She never said, ‘girl, what are you doing here?’ TRUE? Or ‘why are you going to go into the bedroom?’ She never said anything. “She never protected any victim.”
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