English *Brincate para abajo si eres Hispanohablante The Political Corruption Of The Light Of the World La Luz del Mundo’s prominent leaders, ministers and self-proclaimed apostle Naason Joaquin Garcia manipulated church members in the Mexican presidential electoral process of 2018. Audio files, documents, and pictures reveal how Joaquin Garcia orchestrated a campaign to suppress the vote among his followers by promoting fear and false narratives. According to multiple sources, it was during the first months of 2018 that LLDM’s operatives Rogelio Zamora, Hamlet Almaguer and Silem Garcia Pena received orders from Naason to meet with teams of all potential presidential candidates to negotiate a deal that would benefit the Joaquin family and the church in exchange for votes. 2 political organizations in Mexico accepted the deal including a coalition led by the National Action Party (PAN) Citizens Movement (MC), the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) as well as another coalition formed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Green Party of Mexico (Verde) and the New Alliance Party.

This deal gave candidacies to Rogelio Zamora Jr (Senate), minister Silem Garcia Pena (Congress), APEM leader Hamlet Almaguer (Congress), minister Gerson Garcia Flores (Guadalajara City Government), Jonadab Martinez (Jalisco State Congress), Kheila Ku (Congress), Emmanuel Reyes (Congress) Alicia Ganem Rivas (Congress), Magnolia Vidales (Congress), Aracely Sauceda (Congress) and Barzilai Garcia (Congress). The political parties had delivered their promise to LLDM and it was time for the church to return the favor. The strategy to convince parishioners was designed by Rogelio Zamora and it focused on the church “loosing freedom of religion” if Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) was elected president of Mexico.

Sources say that Naason Joaquin Garcia met privately with LLDM ministers and gave a direct order to prohibit any LLDM member from voting for AMLO. Naason was mad about the fact that AMLO’s team rejected giving them any candidacies in exchange for votes. Joaquin also instructed his civil organization APEM to host forums where they would invite “experts” to convince everyone to vote according to his desire. This meeting took place in May 2018 in Mexico City. Presidential candidates José Antonio Meade (PRI) and Margarita Zavala (Ind) publicly spoke to LLDM members to support Naason’s view. Prominent church members also used social media to spread the word and even ministers sent leaders and read political statements on church grounds which is illegal in Mexico.

Other political organizations became aware that LLDM’s leader was breaking the law and the media started questioning the church forcing Naason to deliver a public speech rejecting he was influencing the election in anyway. He invited his followers to analyze which candidate was better for the church’s interests and said they had the liberty of choosing. However in private, ministers and leaders kept influencing members by sending voice messages threatening those who wouldn’t cooperate.

In one of the many messages sent by an LLDM minister he states that “It doesn’t matter if the other political candidates are thieves and corrupt as long as they don’t mess with the church” and threatens that if people don’t listen “the church will go through a difficult time”. Despite Naason’s efforts the strategy did not work. AMLO was elected president and his party won the state congressional seat in Hermosa Provincia defeating LLDM member Jonadab Martinez.