Rodolfo Soriano-Núñez Jueves, 25 de Septiembre del 2025, 00:00
The arrest happened at a property in Vista Hermosa, Michoacán, identified by locals as owned by CJNG.
The arrest at the facility allegedly linked to the CJNG happens a few days after new charges have been raised in the United States against Naasón García Joaquín, apostle of the Luz de Mundo Church.
By Rodolfo Soriano-Núñez
Late on Tuesday September 23, Mexican authorities arrested a group of 38 males in a rural area of the state of Michoacán, in Western Mexico.
Although these kind of arrests of large groups of males are rather common, this case stands out because the suspects of several crimes identified themselves as members of the Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) Church, a religious organization in Mexico whose leader, the so-called apostle Naasón Joaquín García is already in jail in Chino, California, and was recently indicted on new charges of racketeering and sex trafficking of members of his own flock.
The arrest happened in the small town of Vista Hermosa, 62 miles or 100 kilometers East of Guadalajara, and 223 miles or 358 kilometers West of Mexico City. The arrest is more relevant as it happened in what people in that region of Mexico identified as “deep territory” of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, a drug dealing operation recently declared by the U.S., Canadian, and other governments as terrorist organizations.
Although no identities were revealed, ever since the arrest, their links to the Luz del Mundo Church were highlighted by the local media, more so as the very facilities were the arrest happened are seen as part of the Cartel’s property in that region of Mexico.
Another issue highlighted by the Mexican authorities has been the arsenal in their possession and the fact that among the weapons, some of the replicas, probably for the purpose of training new recruits, there was a box to simulate a “homemade bomb,” and some tactical equipment, on top of computers and hunting knives.
As it is also usual in Mexico when members of criminal organizations have been arrested, a large number of insignias of different law enforcement, the Mexican Army and National Guard were seized.
At this point it is unclear what are the actual links between the 38 males arrested and the Luz del Mundo Church, but even if it was merely a ploy to distract the Mexican authorities, it reveals the perception about the kind of leadership that religious organization exerts in Western Mexico and in some counties with large Mexican populations in California, Texas, and other U.S. states.
Notably, one of the 38 males identified himself as U.S. citizen, although no name has been provided at the time.
Also, although there is no official statement regarding the features or who is the owner of the facilities, several local reports describe it as a “training facility” or something akin to one.
Stories of training facilities
It should be noted that early this year the Mexican government faced a media nightmare when it became public that, back in mid-2024, a similar “training facility" in the neighboring state of Jalisco had been identified, although there was no official report of it.
A few months later, once the general elections of 2024 were over, it was known that in said “training facility,” the so-called Rancho Izaguirre, large amounts of shoes, garments, personal belongings, including the so-called "INE," a voter registration card used in Mexico to vote in federal and local elections but also, up until now, the most used ID in the country.
Non-official sources claimed that there were charred human remains in what media in Mexico called “ovens” or “furnaces,” to dispose of corpses of either victims of human trafficking, victims of kidnapping whose families were unable to pay ransom or other similar scenarios.
Since then, conflicting accounts of the actual purpose of the Rancho Izaguirre have emerged. That happened, also, in the midst of a widespread crisis of trust in the disposition of the Mexican government to actually address the disappearance of over 110 thousand individuals, including the students of the Ayotzinapa Teachers College in the state of Guerrero, a case Los Angeles Press has been following for several years now, as proven by the story linked after.
English Edition
What the Pascal Report on Ayotzinapa Reveals
It must also be stressed that, despite the repeated claims of victims of clergy sexual abuse at the hand of the hierarchy of the Luz del Mundo Church, including Naasón’s father, Samuel Joaquín Flores, the Mexican government has been unwilling to launch a probe on abuse in that or any other organization accused of sexual abuse in Mexico or elsewhere.
That includes the the so-called NXIVM organization which has as one of its alumni in Mexico the current head of the ministry of Education, Mario Delgado Carrillo, pictured below with Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, the emeritus archbishop of Mexico.
As it happened with priests sent to the United States by Rivera Carrera, who faced charges in the state of California, but never did in Mexico, a similar situation exists for the top leaders of the Luz del Mundo Church who are jailed in the United States with no signs of any interest of the Mexican federal government or that of the state of Jalisco, where their main base exist, to pursue the accusations that exist with the Luz del Mundo Church.
Despite the efforts to find an official statement from the authorities in the state of Michoacán, there is none besides the message posted at what used to be Twitter linked after this paragraph, from where the pictures in the story were taken.
The lack of a detailed official statement is as important as the arrest itself. It seems to point to a strategic decision by either the federal or the state government to navigate what seems to be a volatile situation providing as little information as possible.
Late on Wednesday, over the Facebook profile of the Security Secretary of the government of Michoacán, its head, Juan Carlos Oseguera Cortés, said the facilities are now under custody of the Nation’s Attorney’s Office, as can be seen in the video linked below or here, although with audio available only in Spanish.
In that regard it seems as if from now on it would be the Nation’s Attorney who will be in charge of the probe.
The Mexican government choices on this issue open the door for the Luz del Mundo Church to control the narrative denying any relationship with criminal and now terrorists organizations, even if local media in Mexico continue to highlight the criminal connections.
But also, given the recent national nightmare in Rancho Izaguirre it is impossible not to wonder if, as it happened in that other “training facility" of the CJNG, in the future traces of people disappearing in Mexico at the behest of criminal organizations as the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación will emerge at Vista Hermosa, Michoacán.