A religious sect whose
members professed to be “anointed by God” forced a pregnant woman and five of
her children to walk through fire as part of a cult ritual.
Police reported seven
villagers had been killed by the cult earlier this week, while 14 more were
found by authorities the next day, bound and beaten in a temple.
According to residents
in El Terron, Panama ,the cult, known as “The New Light of God”, is made up of
indigenous people who claim to be chosen by God to sacrifice non-believers,
even if the heretics are members of the own families,.
Nine villagers have
been arrested and charged with murder, reportedly including a grandfather and
two uncles of the five children who died alongside their pregnant mother and a
neighbour.
A distraught tribal
leader, Evangelisto Santo, said “Nobody expected this,” adding that local
people had largely ignored the religious group.
The sect arose after a
villager returned to El Terron following a stint abroad, bringing back unusual
religious beliefs with him.
Last weekend, members
of the sect began dragging victims into an improvised church, where they beat
them into submission with sticks.
Cult members also
stood with machetes ready to attack those who failed to repent to their
satisfaction.
El Terron is nestled
in the jungle of the indigenous Ngabe Bugle enclave on Panama’s Caribbean coast
and is largely cut off from the modern world.
Many in the community,
which is home to about 300 people and gets by growing yuca and rice, are Roman
Catholics.
Josue Gonzalez, a
farmer, managed to rescue two of his children – a 5-year-old girl and a
7-year-old boy – from the attack, while a 15-year-old son escaped on his own.
However, he was not
able to save his pregnant wife and five of their other children before
authorities arrived by helicopter and found Mr Gonzalez’s wife, the children
and a neighbour decapitated and buried.
The cult members
charged in the case reportedly include Mr Gonzalez’s own father, and villagers
have said two of Mr Gonzalez’s brothers had declared themselves prophets of the
cult.