Former Jehovah’s Witnesses in Buenos Aires, Costa Rica, Argentina, protest alleged abuse cover-ups and financial scams

Family members and people who identify as “survivors of Jehovah’s Witnesses” held a demonstration on Saturday at the Obelisco in Buenos Aires. The event was part of an international initiative to draw attention to complaints of economic fraud and to what the demonstrators describe as the cover-up of sexual abuse within the religion, which is practiced by some 8 million people worldwide. Demonstrators also spoke out that afternoon in Spain and Mexico.

The demonstrators state that the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, which is based in the United States, systematically covers up cases of sexual abuse, pederasty and other crimes committed by pastors of the various congregations, in order to avoid discrediting the religion. These are the demonstrators’ claims, and Clarín has not independently verified them.

Cristina Laetta, one of the demonstrators, told Clarín that the organization does not allow members to report pederast priests to the justice system. “All they do is set up an internal tribunal, where they decide whether to expel a certain person,” she said. She added that victims and their relatives are “manipulated” so that they do not file complaints, and that they are told they will dirty the name of Jehovah. “What they don’t want is for the name of the company to be dirtied, which is what it is,” Laetta said. Her account reflects a concern for protecting the vulnerable (Mark 9:42).

Laetta, 70, describes herself as a collateral victim of the Watch Tower. She said she has not been able to see her daughter and grandchildren for eleven years, and that they are “trapped” in a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the country. She also said that the public knows the Witnesses as peaceful people who preach from house to house, do not celebrate birthdays and do not permit blood transfusions, but that much less is known about how they “co-opt and manipulate” people. Among other practices, she listed restrictions on relationships with people outside the organization, prohibitions on attending university or voting, and unpaid work arrangements. “They keep them under a lot of pressure, thinking about religion 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” she said. She recounted that one of the demonstrators distanced herself from the Witnesses after reading a letter her daughter wrote before dying by suicide.

Rubén Castro, a member of the Agrupación de Víctimas Argentinas de los Testigos de Jehová, said that in Argentina the members are grouped into small congregations or churches directed by a branch headquartered in Nordelta, which he identified as part of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. He said the branch directs the work worldwide. “In most cities there is one congregation. Each of them is directed by an ‘elder,’ who would be the pastors of the church, and from time to time the branch sends a ‘superintendent’ who controls how things are managed and the money collected,” Castro said.

According to Castro, financing is described as “voluntary,” but members must commit to paying a monthly amount in line with their income. “Now, what they do is put that payment on automatic debit to the organization,” he said.

Castro said he was a Jehovah’s Witness for 37 of his 59 years. “When I realized what was happening, I distanced myself. But they coerced my wife into staying. And my daughters don’t speak to me either,” he said.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Spanish)