Jungle cult teenage mum returns to Elche

Alleged cult leader remains in prison on remand

THE YOUNG woman from Elche who was freed from an alleged cult in the Peruvian jungle in July has come back to Spain with her two-monthold baby.

Patricia Aguilar left home on her 18th birthday in January 2017 to be with the supposed cult leader, Félix Steven Manrique, who had cultivated a relationship with her online over the previous two years.

Her father travelled to Peru in January to look for her and returned to help police in July.

She was found 600 kilometres away from capital city Lima in a kind of run-down stable in a dangerous area of the jungle, where she was living in unsanitary conditions and looking after several children alone.

Sr Manrique was arrested several kilometres away with two very thin women who bore signs of violence, one of whom was eight months pregnant.

Sra Aguilar stayed at a Peruvian government foster shelter, where she and her baby were treated for malnutrition and she was reunited with her father a week-and-ahalf later.

A criminal court in Lima has remanded Sr Manrique in custody for nine months, charging him with people trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation.

A judge has given a deadline of four months for the in- vestigation to be carried out.

On Monday her father, Alberto Aguilar held a press conference at Elche city hall with the family’s spokeswoman, Noelia Bru and lawyer from the association SOS Desparecidos, Maite Rojas.

Sra Rojas informed that a court in Elche has asked the court in Peru for information pending charges in Spain which include inducing her to leave the family home when she was still a minor.

Sra Bru lamented that there is a lack of legislation for cases involving cults, which leaves victims unprotected. She called for police training and protocols ‘so they know how to act in these situations’, and for an observatory to examine how to prevent them and help centres for the victims of cults.

The family asked for their daughter to be treated with respect and privacy.

“She is a victim and has to get her life back; it is distressing for her to be the centre of attention,” said Sra Bru.

She noted that Patricia had returned of her own free will and although she did not ‘feel like she had been rescued’ she was aware she had been living badly in the jungle.

Sr Aguilar indicated that Patricia is happy to be reconnecting with her family, making progress with social services and ‘will get over all this because she is very determined’.

“We are prepared to listen to what happened over the months when she wants to talk about it, she has not said anything relevant so far, only comments about the food or the river that flows by there,” he said. “I’m here to listen to her, understand her and not question her.”