Before we jump in, we must warn you this episode contains content such as sexual abuse that may be disturbing to some people. Listener discretion is advised. Picture this December nineteen eighty one, Puertoayarta, Mexico. Flowers are in full bloom and you can hear the sound of waves crushing below the cliffs of the villa's gardens. What Moises Padilla does not notice the beautiful scenery Moises here. Samuel call for him from the balcony of the mansion, telling him to
come inside, but Moises ignores him. He is too busy looking for a rock, a big one, a rock heavy enough to bush the head of some oil into a pulp and kill him.
Mal Joannes Momento sipence matarlotamente pince mata.
I felt awful. All I could think about was killing him. I looked at a rock and thought I'll kicked him in his knots and break his face with that stone. But I stopped. I told myself, no, no, no, If I do that, he'll end up a martyr and I'll be in jail for the rest of my life, or be killed in prison by the followers of the Light of the World.
I imagine the memory of that rock flashed through Moises's head seventeen years later as he lay completely naked, bruce and bleeding on to call asphalt in the middle of nowhere. If Moises had chosen action over mercy back then, he might have avoided this particular fate. Viciously stabbed over sixty times and left for dead on the side of a deserted road on the outskirts of Wallajara, Mexico, Moyses caught a glimpse of his attackers. The men held bent on
destroying his life, and one of them. He recognized that man is what this story is all about. As the men walked away, Moses felt himself living his body, but he would survive, and so would his plan for revenge. I'm Robert T. Garza, and this is Sacred Scandal, Season two. La Us del Mundo, Episode two, Left for Dead. Moses Padilla grew up in the seventies and eighties Inner Moosa Provincia, a neighborhood in the Mexican city of Wallajare Inner Moosa Provincia.
All of Moyses's friends, neighbors, teachers, basically everybody belonged to Lalus del Mundo or l DM for short. Moses was born into a church family. Mother joined after meeting his mother, Maria and Moises's grandmother. Maria's mother had been a member, serving under the original apostle, Aaron, who founded the church in the nineteen twenties. We'll hear more about Aron later, but for now, what you need to know is this.
In the nineteen eighties, LLDM was growing. Samuel Jaquin had taken the reins in the nineteen sixties after his father's Aaron's death, and Samuel had big plans. Under Samuel's leadership, the church was booming, expanding internationally and consolidating its importance and clouds in Mexico. Unlike his father, Aaron, Samuel treated LLM like a corporation, establishing clear hierarchies within the church, pushing for its international expansion, and consolidating a strict code
of conduct for members. Life insider Mossa Provincia was structured around the church, and Moises Padilla's life was no different. As a boy, he founded and led the church's youth choir. He attended services three times a day, and in his spare time, he collected money for the temple. Unlike any good believer. Moses, his friends and family revered the Apostles sa Molhoakin like a god for Moises. Being born into
a church family came with certain privileges. As a kid, Moses was often invited to someone's house the Casagrande or great house, to play with some Moelhuakin's children, or, as church insiders called them, the royal Princess. Moses felt very proud to be a part of it all. On one of those visits, when Moses was sixteen years old, some well invited Moises to stay for lunch that was considered
a rare blessing. The apostles served a beautiful lobster meal and then invited Moises to drive him to his beach house in Portoayarta, several hours away. This was a true honor for Moises and his family could not be refused. To drive from Gualajara to Portoyerta is scenic. Two hundred miles of lush mountains transport you from one of the densest cities in Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. But Moises did not notice the gorgeous plains or mountains. He was
disturbed by the man next to him. Samuel Juaquin, his apostle, his leader, a trusted family friend, suddenly put his hand on Moises's leg and began to move it upwards, and he did not stop. By the time they arrived at the beach house, Moises was trembling. He remembers being aroused and feeling terribly ashamed. Things only got warse inside the house. After it was all over, Moses ran outside to the garden and threw up.
Or yo yovnia.
All I could do was cry.
Moys says, was upset and tried to comfort him.
Yeah as in Musi and said no, no, there was a pilt.
He was very tender. He told me, no, no, you must not feel bad because today you have learned the secrets of a servant of God. I asked, what secrets you have a wife? This is not an act of God, he says. You must understand that I'm an angel. Angels do not have sex. We can enjoy a man or a woman.
Samoltolmois says that what had taken place between them was not profane, but divine, not rape, but a blessing. And then he told musays one other very important.
Thing, nulidigas nada to Papa Nia tu sermanus nulisdigas na.
Don't say anything to your dad or your brothers. Don't tell them anything, because if they leave the church, you will be responsible for their condemnation.
Back in Wajara, Monses kept the abuse his secret. He told no one, not his parents or his sisters. The apostle had warned him that if he talked about what had happened, he and his family would be damned to hell. Shortly after his return, his fourteen year old sister Martha began acting strangely. She started wetting her bed, She stopped showering, combing her hair, and washing her clothes.
One of mister Romanda's Martha me, one.
Of my sisters, tells me that she is leaving home. She didn't want to tell me why.
Concerned, Mosses pressed Martha for more details. At first, Martha refused to tell him anything, but little by little the truth came out, and soon an alliance formed between Muises and Martha. It was then the brother and sisters started a lifelong journey putting together the pieces of generations of abuse that went far beyond brother and sister. We'll get to that very soon. What Moyses learned from Martha's confession was that his sister had a story very similar to his.
Own e Medico Quez Amoeila.
And then she says that Samuel had raped her and that her mother had taken her when she was only thirteen.
Martha's strange behavior began just after this encounter. Like Mois says, Martha was sworn to secrecy, threatened with the condemnation of their entire family to hell if she told. But unlike Moises, she was given to the apostle willingly by her mother. And then Martha told, Mois says.
And it turns out that my mother also offered herself in at the age of thirteen.
His own mother, Maria, had been raped as a girl by Ron SAME's father, an El d M's founder its very first Apostle. She had been taken by her mother, Moises's grandmother. All his life, moys has had heard the rumors. Rumors of the Apostles had once assault on his own stepsister, not yet twelve years old, of erotic costume parties the handmaid and arranged for Samuel's birthdays. He also remembered the young pretty girl Samuel surrounded himself with and the older
handmaiden who always seemed to watch them like hawks. Rumors that the faithful listening obediently to their pastors dismissed as the work of evil apostates speaking for Satan. But Moyses couldn't deny the rumors any more. He was both witness and evidence. How to move forward with this knowledge, however, would not be easy. In l D, m accusations are hushed, punished,
and denied from generation to generation. At the church. The mere mention of the apostles in proprieties is considered the gravest of sins, meriting eternal damnation in heaven and a harsh response from the Church on Earth. Members who leave the church are exiled and called impure an apostles. It's been two years since an incident with some will in Portoyata, two years of tough, horrifying revelations that hut turned Moyses's world upside down. He was now eighteen. He began saving money.
He planned to leave the church and his family for good, but he couldn't stop thinking of his sister Martha, his new baby sister Miriam. Living would save himself, but not them, nor any other believer. He had to tell the truth, starting with his.
Father innocent momento with look at you.
And at that moment, what I did was to save some money in case my father did not believe us. What I did was to prepare everything to rent an apartment and take my sister with me in case my father kicked us out of the house, which is the most common thing that happens in this cult.
Moises braced himself for a confrontation. After a couple of months of washing cars and tending houses, he was ready for the worst. Moyses approached his father and told him.
Everything afuntek jo Ablo dees to commit.
Fortunately, when I talked to my father about this, he listens to me.
Not only did his father believe him, he agreed to leave the church with his son and young daughters. His mother and older sister, Magdalena were less understanding. They called moisays on his father liars and sinners and decided to stay put by Samuel's side.
They prefily Glesia nolin Porto.
She chose the church over everything. She left my baby sister, and he didn't FaZe her. Miriam was only three years old. Can you imagine she didn't care that she was choosing to stay in that church over her three year old daughter.
For the first time in his life, Moyses was free. He felt relieved to be out from under the control of the apostles and the rest of the flock. However, he was not satisfied with simply walking away.
He wanted justice daima Nazi in La.
Of course, it was only natural that I'd come up with a plan of attack as strategy to put him in jail. I was focused.
At twenty years old, Moyses started studying law, believing that this was the way to bring Samoil and LDM down. His father, Primitivo, a judge, gave him a reality check.
No, I didn't finish my law degree because of my father, and with good reason. He would tell me that the country's laws existed but were rarely enforced.
Primitivo then offered to help his son with his plan.
Lo mimo medisee almost.
He says to me, let's investigate the families that have left, the ones they call impure.
So Moises and his father, in order to form a clear picture of the scope of someone's abuses, reached out to other families that had already they left the church.
Musimos lat the carculas familias.
We talked to those families and it was a river of tears, every one of them relieved the suffering sam Well had custom.
Together, father and son began building a case against LLEDM, one that would show the abuses were not exceptional, but built into the church's operations, crimes that required the church's institutional oversight and protection to be enacted and covered up. Primitivo. Tolmis says that they must do this work in secrets until their case was strong enough, because once they went public, his father warned it would not be easy.
Matta, they will kill you.
Ever since the church's earliest days, LDM had carefully cultivated its earthly power. When Apostle ar Owned founded the church back in the nineteen twenties, Mexico was governed by the PRI, a single ruling party that held unchecked power for over seventy years, basically a dictatorship with little to know governmental checks or balances. What the ruling class wanted it got.
LEDM worked willingly with the PRI. When the PRI needed something like a large number of people to attend rallies for the campaign work, or a huge base mobilized to vote one way or another. PRI only had to phone up the Apostle and say the word, and LEDM would quickly deploy its thousands of believers. It was not uncommon to have one hundred percent of her most provincials votes
go to PRI. This relationship worked both ways. Pr got to use ledm's base, and LEDM was able to operate not only undisturbed by government authorities, but openly aided by them. For example, when Samuel decided to build a giant temple in Hermosa Provincia in nineteen eighty one, the plan encountered no pushback, no red tape, no pesky inspectors, and a full tax exemption. Add a corrupt political structure to a
massive cult. Following and Yu get l uzel Mundo, an organization operating almost totally outside the law, yet in plain sight uncrackable. As former church insiders, Moyses and his father knew, it would not be easy to find justice. The pair spent over five years building their first case. They gathered testimonial after testimonial of the Apostle's abuses and corruption.
Nopalsindo Juez said Toma Multovo.
As a judge. My father summoned up all his courage and political connections and attempted to file a criminal case against them.
Will Finally, Muses and his father filed acclaim against Samuel Juaquin for abuse.
No no longer, but that ultimately fails.
So they went back to the families and survivors, gathered more evidence, fathered another lawsuit, and another and another. Every single time, I says, and his father got stuck in one bureaucratic nightmare after another, bumped from office to office in a whirlwind of lost papers and misplaced evidence. After several fell lawsuits, Moses's father decided to pull some strings. Perhaps they could not win in Wallajara, so maybe they
should try their luck in Mexico City. They hopped on a plane to visit an old schoolmate of his dad's, a high profile politician and tamin AD minister.
Fum in Nocuiso. He at a COI.
We went to his office, but he wanted nothing to do with it. It got heated and he ended up throwing my dad out of his office. He said he was busy and he had no time for this nonsense. He told him not to start trouble with religious leaders, they're untouchable in Mexico.
In nineteen ninety four, twelve years after Moyses and his father left the church, mister Padilla passed away without saying his children get any justice. Before he died, he shared something with his son that has to find Moyses's life ever since.
Dreguerdo and Papa as in.
Siundia, dios toga to puerpo para kessum baso.
I remember my dad telling me, if God calls you one day to be the vessel that brings justice for all the children that have been raped, for all elderly that had their homes taken away, and for all the parents' outrage over their heritage, you must do it. Don't be afraid, just do it. Nothing will happen to you.
Moyses knew that to defeat el DM he would need a better plan. Anonymous testimonials would not be enough. He teamed up with Fernando Flores, the church's longtime archivist and historian. Flores helped Mouses find survivors willing to speak out publicly against l DM, no matter the cost. By the end of the summer of nineteen ninety seven, the newly formed Front was ready.
El gurupido. The Valiantes has to be on the paramison as it was a.
Small, brave group of people. In my eyes, they were heroes. It was a tough time. There was no social media, and we knew that we were facing a political and economic monster.
Moises and the other members of the group went on to file criminal complaints in Mexico City. They knew they were likely to be rejected or indefinitely archived by the authorities, but this time they got receipts.
Nonos geria acetarla de nuncia.
They did not want to accept the complaints, and we knew they wouldn't. We believed that the best option at that point was to have the attorney's stamp and signature. We wanted the time and date stamped right then and there in his office, and so we played dumb and act like we weren't sure if they could do us the favor. We were ensure they would give us a receipt acknowledging the complaint, but they gave it to us as planned.
Their filing went nowhere, but this time Moises and his group would use Mexico's bureaucratic nightmare to their advantage. With the documents in hand, they went on newsrooms and national talk shows publicly denouncing the Apostle and LDM for abuse. Sam Oil and LDM tried to get in front of the story, but the damage was inescapable. They went from
the nile to full bloom panic. Some Oil and his minions even attempted to buy up all the newspapers covering the subject in Wallajara and destroy them, but it was pointless. The story was everywhere more on that after the break Moises on the group had chosen to sidestep the inefficient and corrupt legals system and go straight to the court
of public opinion. After appearing on some of the most important newscasts in the country like televisas, the Traslanatissia and SAW the Mexico and the Luni Versal, the group was overwhelmed with requests for interviews by newspapers, radio stations, and TV channels. They could feel the tides changing. Their next step was a big public action, a hunger strike. In the winter of nineteen ninety seven, Moises and a group
of ledm's defectors set up camping downtown Mexico City. Write under what amounts to Mexico's Homeland Security Offices, the offices that in the country grant any annual churches a license to operate on Mexican soil. The Hunger's strike was not easy. There was no rest at the campsite. Ledm members constantly harassed them. They threw thrush at the strikers, honked and shouted at all hours of the night, and even ran their cars into the tents at the site. Moses had
to maintain a constant vie vilence. But Moyses knew he was getting under the Apostle's skin when a lawyer showed up with a briefcase.
Samuel Joaquin Mando la Luzel Mundo.
Samuel Joaquim sent two of his lawyers from the light of the world with a four million dollar brivee. They said that brother Samuel was upset and saddened by what he had done and the damage he had got to the church. He sends this money as an apology and hopes we can put this matter to rest.
When Moyses opened the briefcase, all he felt was rage.
Korah I was speechless until one of the lawyers told me, it's a lot of money. Moy says, I'm normally not a rude or nasty person, but at that moment I told him to take the damn money and go. I asked them to do me a huge favor and take every single one hundred dollar bill and stick it up his ass.
A couple weeks later, Samuel's lawyer visited again, this time with six million dollars. Again Moises refused. Immediately after, Mosas was invited into Mexico's Homeland Security office for a private meeting with the Secretary of the Interior.
Yeah, secretarial, and that's when the Secretary of the Interior yelled at me, insulted me, and asked if I had a visa for the United States. I told him yes. He told me to go to the United States and as a favor, I could go in a government plane. Arriving in a government plane will ensure I wouldn't be searched. He said, take your money and get lost. I don't
need you costing me any more problems. Then, with a straight face, he says, I know you're right, but there is no room in prison for so many Samolites.
He's a miss Manocia for Pando mess question.
That same night, I was kidnapped.
That night, who says returned home to Arajara. He was exhausted. The hunger strike had gone nowhere. He was looking forward to a couple of nights rest at home before regrouping and deciding what to do next. That evening, when he stepped out to buy some groceries, six men jumped him and shoved him into a car with tinted windows. He imagined he would be taken to one of the tunnels or secret rooms hidden under Ledm's main temple, the one
Samuel had built in the nineteen eighties. But that's not what happened.
La. He standoned and through the Losrangos.
They took me to the farmland around Tonella, and that's when they tortured me.
They drove to the outskirts of the city into an abandoned warehouse and proceeded to beat him furiously, yelling at him that he should have kept his mouth shut, And then several of them took out their.
Knives, and just as they're stabbing me, I'm freed and Sante Sally. It was like an out of body experience. I can look down at the six men about to torture.
Me, Moises says, he was able to clearly see his attackers and that he knew they were federal police officers.
We have been since Cio pourque la luzel Mounto.
Simply put, the light of the world was connected and pulled favors. Everyone knew that Samuela and his children had bodyguards who were paid for by the government.
Most of the men he couldn't place, but there was one face he did recognize, a man Moisees had known all his life. He had often played with him as a little boy.
Sally or mean Sante Sally.
My spiritual body comes out, or my consciousness comes out. I can look at the six who were going to torture me. The truth is believe me didn't care. I knew that I was going to a better place.
But at that moment he was oblivious, floating between life and death on experience.
It was a beautiful experience. The moment thinking energy meets your quantum energy. It's an energy most humans are unaware of. You exist, what you do, not have a body, You see, but have no eyes. You think, but you don't have a brain. It's something unique that breaks the loss of physics, chemistry, everything really.
After stabbing Moys says over sixty times, his neck, his back and torso. The man carried his limb body back to the van, drove a couple of miles and left him for dead at the side of the road. What moisays, didn't I he just spent three or four hours in his beautiful out of body experience until he woke up naked and kicked.
Him blood dregreso a miguerpo. He medesa marro comens.
I woke up and untied myself. I started walking towards the road and eventually began crossing the Tonala Highway. I stopped on the yellow line and sea lights coming towards me, standing there naked, when hand covering my genitals and the other hand waving them to stop. Aji jo THEWN testimonial. They took me to a local police station. I didn't think i'd get another chance, so I gave a brief statement, something that they could have on record.
Afterwards, Monses is taken to a local hospital. It's done just a couple hours after his attack. Word gets out and his friends and family arrive, and so does Walajara's district attorney, el Era.
He wasn't just a district attorney, but also a member of the Light of the World and even had family members that were part of the choir.
The district attorney cured Moyses's friends and family out of the room. Moyses was sure he had come to finish the job. Instead, he was offered another deal Meli.
He asked me, how much will it take to shut you up? You're a thorn at my side, you son of a bitch. Just give me a number that will shut you up and make you disappear.
Of course, Moyses refused, but it was clear his life was in serious danger. He wanted to leave the hospital right then and there, but couldn't. He stayed at the clinic for almost a week, drifting in and out of consciousness. Shortly before he was discharged, the district attorney paid him another visit. Moses claimed his attackers were federalis, so in order to prove him wrong, the district attorney brought a set of headshots for Moises to identify.
For those, the district attorney came back with two albums full of tiny pictures. I looked through each one carefully and picked one guy out, then another, And as I kept looking through, I pointed at six photos, six people I recognized in my kidnapping. Was it a coincidence that the same six judicial police officers had asked for the day off on the day of my attack. Yeah, And even after picking them up, there was never an investigation.
The men who attacked moys says, were never prosecuted for their crime, not even the one man whom moy says is sure he so committed, the one he knew intimately his childhood playmate, Samuel's own son, Nason ja King Garcia.
I think Nason ordered the attack as a gift to Samuel. It was almost February fourteenth.
February fourteenth is Amael's birthday, and this.
Was his way of owing his dad that he deserved to lead.
Samo Jakin was never punished for his crimes. He died peacefully in Walahara in December twenty fourteen, surrounded by his wife, his children, attended by his many young handmaidens. Sixteen years after Moses identified him as one of the men who stabbed him less than a week after Samuel Hawkins's death, Nasan Juakin Garcia fulfilled his destiny, taking his rightful place as the present day leader of La uzel Mundo. Musespadeia spent forty days recovering and fled to the United States.
In the year two thousand. He was granted asylum and given a new identity by the FBI, but his fight is not over.
Years.
I told myself I needed to go to the United States because that's where the church truly makes their money. That's where the immigrants are, where they earned dollars, and more importantly, that's the country where I can leave a permanent mark on the record. They'll forever be known as criminals.
On our next episode, we learn how ledm became untouchable and how the founder Aroun convinced thousands of people he was second only to God. I think that the problem is here is the sick mind.
And I believe that Aaron Elsebio essentially was a sick person, and he was a pedophile, and that he was a man from the army.
He was a man of power. Sacred scandala uzel Mundo is a production of Exile Content Studio in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura podcast Network, and is hosted by me Robert ta Garza, produced by Savin Jensen with the help of Estella, I amt Reynald Gutierrez and an Isabel Octavio. Written by myself and Monissa Henri's research by Roberta Garza. Additional reporting by Florenzia monsals Geralcia. Fact checking for this episode by
Sean Merchant. Engineering by Uga Mendoza. Sound designed by Patrick Quiniones. Original music by Patrick Hart, Edited by Vira Alsop and Rose Reed. Executive producers are Rose Reed, Carmen gratterol Isaac Lee, and Nando Villa. Daniel Bautista overseas audio at Exilcnton Studio. Our executive producers at iHeart Argistel Vances and Arlen Santana. Sacred Scandal was created by Menalie Bartley and Paula Varos. Special thanks to voice actor Anjaldeza, who contributed to this
episode and to Sonic Union. For more podcasts, go to iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.