Religious Cult in Panama Kills Pregnant Woman and 6 Kids in Grim Ritual

Authorities discovered a mass grave after raiding the premises of the obscure cult in Ngäbe-Buglé region 250 kilometers from Panama City, according to an article by CNN. Seven bodies, including a pregnant woman and six children, were found tortured, slaughtered and buried as part of a grim ritual.

The police arrested ten amateur preachers who called themselves followers of the New Light of God, who require locals to "repent their sins" or else be killed by sect members who felt they had been given a "message from God." One of the suspects was the grandfather of some of the murdered victims.

Authorities said the bodies belong to three boys and three girls -- two 9-year-olds, plus others aged 1, 3, 11 and 17 - and 32-year-old mother of five of the children, who was between four and six months pregnant.

According to BBC, the preacher group had been in the area for some three months but matters deteriorated the previous Saturday when one cultist, convinced God was telling them to do so, kick-started the kidnappings of locals.

The police have rescued 15 other people whom they believe were next in line for a similar murder. They found sufficient evidence to connect them to the killings, including machetes, other tools, as well as a bible and a goat used for sacrifice.

"It appears they were members of a religious cult that carried out rituals and they were apparently responsible for the crime," said Rafael Baloyes, the region's public prosecutor.

Baloyes added that authorities conducted investigation in local communities to see whether anyone else was missing, but didn't find any more victims.

According to the Associated Press https://apnews.com/2fa3043d322547dcfdd65db330d92168, local leader Ricardo Miranda of the Ngabé Buglé called the sect "Satanic."

"We demand the immediate eradication of this Satanic sect, which violates all the practices of spirituality and co-existence in the Holy Scriptures," he said.

Diomedes Blanco, a member of the community who helped police in the rescue, said that two people in the sect told him about what they were doing shortly before the killings.

"The reason for committing that kind of sacrifice was that God had anointed them as prophets," he claimed two brothers had told him.

"The purpose of all of that was to destroy the community. Why? Because the community didn't want to believe in God."

Ngabé Buglé is the country's biggest Indigenous group. Although fanaticism was behind the incident, the area's isolation, poverty and lack of government services for the indigenous peoples, played a role.

"I need the government to help people in remote areas with little access, where you have to walk so far," said Gonzalez.

Aside from that, Ngabé Buglé also suffers from inadequate social services, worse labor conditions than their non-indigenous counterparts and child labor.

Andrew Chesnut, a professor of religious studies specializing in Latin America at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the sect appears to be a "syncretic cult" adopting a "hodgepodge of beliefs stitched together" with Pentacostalism at its core but also incorporating elements of indigenous beliefs and even New Age philosophy.

Chesnut added that the ritually sacrificed goat found at the site is "anathema to any Christian practice, seen as idolatry."