Cult killers sentenced to 50 years prison in Panama
A court has imposed Panama’s maximum sentence of 50 years in prison on seven members of a cult who killed a woman and six children in a religious rite in a remote part of the Central American nation
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A court imposed Panama's maximum sentence of 50 years in prison Friday on seven members of a cult who killed a woman and six children in a religious rite in a remote part of the Central American nation.
The court in Bocas del Toro province sentenced two other members of the New Light of God cult to 47 years in prison each.
The cult had operated for about three years in the Ngabe Bugle hamlet of El Terron on Panama's Caribbean coast, but villagers said it had changed after one member had a vision telling the lay preachers they had been “annointed” to exterminate unbelievers.
On Jan. 13, 2020, the group summoned a number of villagers to its improvised church in a long wooden shed.
One of the 14 people rescued from the church the next day, Dina Blanco, said she had gone with her 9-year-old daughter, who had epilepsy, her 15-year-old son and her father.
When they arrived, they were told not to open their eyes, and to grab each others’ hands and pray.
“I felt something hit my head, and then I don’t what happened to me," she told The Associated Press last year. “I dropped to my knees.”
Authorities said cult members used Bibles, cudgels and machetes to hit the congregants, some of whom were forced to strip, and walk across glowing embers.
The dead included Blanco's daughter, her pregnant neighbor and five of the woman's children. Their bodies were slung into hammocks and dumped in a freshly dug common grave in the village cemetery.
The village of about 300 people is largely cut off from the outside world. Residents must walk hours along steep and muddy narrow roads to hail boats that can transport them along a river to other villages that have electricity, telephones, health clinics and a police presence.