Court Postpones Hearing for La Luz del Mundo Leader Naasón Joaquín García

Naasón Joaquín García leads La Luz del Mundo, a church that a 2023 Record report says was founded in 1926 by Aaron Joaquin and is currently led by the Joaquín family. Followers know him as the Apostle of Jesus Christ. A 2018 report from El País described the church’s temple in Guadalajara as the largest religious temple in Latin America, an 83-meter pyramid built with 5,000 tons of steel.

Reports differ on the details of his criminal case. Infobae reported in June 2022 that García pleaded guilty to sexually abusing three girls, according to a report by the California State Attorney’s Office, and said he had entered the plea the previous Friday after three years in a U.S. prison. The Los Angeles Times reported on June 3, 2022, that García pleaded guilty in the High Court of Los Angeles to two counts of forced oral intercourse involving minors and to a lewd act charge involving a 15-year-old girl. According to the Times, jury selection for his trial was scheduled for the following Monday, and the charges also included human trafficking to produce child pornography. The Times account refers to the charges as stated in the court record; the Infobae account describes the plea in different terms, and the two reports do not give the same count-by-count description.

A 2023 Record article said that ViX had premiered a documentary, *The Apostle*, on September 14, 2023. It was produced by N+ Docs and Univision News. Another report, from The Cinemaholic, said García had been at the center of legal and ethical scrutiny since his 2019 arrest. The source material does not give further detail about that arrest.

On May 15, 2025, García was honored at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City to mark 50 years of his ministry, according to El Universal. The institute that runs the venue, INBAL, denied that the event was religious in nature and said only a concert had been presented. The two accounts describe the same event differently, and the source does not resolve that difference.

In 2026, a report from EjeCentral said the South District Court of New York had rescheduled García’s next court appearance before Judge Loretta A. Preska. The defense requested the delay, citing professional obligations that required three defense members to take part in two separate jury trials on the originally scheduled date. The report does not give the new date of the hearing.