‘Sex cult’ leaders held as 69 victims of abuse are freed

Leaders of an alleged religious sex cult run by a septuagenarian known as Aunty Eva have been arrested, and victims freed in a series of co-ordinated raids across Argentina.

Sixty-nine victims were rescued after 23 early morning raids in Buenos Aires province, Mendoza, Salta, Tucuman, Entre Rios and Neuquen, and at least 10 people were arrested.

The sect leaders have been accused of people trafficking and sexual abuse.

The ‘‘Templo Evangelico Filadelfia’’ was run by three women, led by diminutive 76year-old Eva Petrona Pereyra, who called herself ‘‘Aunty Eva’’.

The other leaders were Pereyra’s sister, Divina Luz (Divine Light), and Adriana del Valle Carranza, both of whom are dead.

A year-long police investigation unearthed evidence that the cult preyed on vulnerable children living on the streets, or with families on low income, recruiting them with blandishments of a better life.

On arrival in the church, victims were stripped of their ID cards, banned from contacting their biological families or attending school, and required to work in a bakery run by the organisation, police claim.

Pereyra, who was first arrested in May 2019, but was granted bail, is registered with the tax authorities in Argentina as a baker.

The Buenos Aires news agency InfoBae reported that Pereyra, despite having no credit cards or bank accounts in her name, had bought a US$500,000 (NZ$708,000) property in an estancia called La Benquerencia Farm Club, which boasts a golf course, polo pitches and horse riding facilities.

The cult also had a training camp for followers called El Descanso (Place to Relax), where recalcitrant members of the sect were allegedly beaten and starved. Pereyra held bizarre ceremonies apparently designed to curtail male cult members’ natural sexual impulses.

Sect leaders are claimed to have provoked one young gay member known only as ‘‘Jony’’ to kill himself, after he was treated for his ‘‘illness’’ with punishment beatings and imprisonment.

Investigating prosecutor Santiago

Marquevich told La Nacion: ‘‘Recruits to the Filadelfia congregation remained under the complete domination of its leaders, who coerced them to the extent that they controlled their will.

‘‘Through this process, which often started at a young age, followers ended up believing their leaders were divine, allowing these women [Pereyra and her accomplices] to carry out all sorts of actions, many of them criminal, without ever being questioned.

The group did not respond to requests for comment.

– Telegraph Group