Patricia ran away from the house seduced by the leader of a sect. She was saved a year and a half later

For a year and a half, Patricia Aguilar remained the very young-looking girl whose black, beaded hair framed a shy smile for her birthday. He did not grow up. At least in the Spanish newspapers, where the news reiterated the publication of the photos of that day, every time the family went to the public, the drama lived since Patricia had run from her home in Alicante to join a sect religious in Peru.

The face that came back to the news on Thursday has lost the smile and timid joy of the girl to whom, around, they sing the congratulations. Visibly slimmer, with her hair caught and a baby in her arms, the young woman has a sad expression. It is she, the same Patricia, but few will be able to recognize her, other than the legend, who locates her in the inhabited area of ​​Alto Celendín, city of Chanchamayo, in the central Peruvian jungle. The child on his lap is his daughter.

There is a lot of persistence and family determination in the operation that saved Patricia Aguilar. When her daughter left the house without notice on January 7, 2017 – she was only 18 years old – the parents soon realized the path she had traced in secret. After confirming that she had cheated on them when leaving when they were both sleeping, saying later that she was with friends and that she would spend the night with them, Alberto and Rosa Maria were frightened. In search of clues, they found in his daughter's room leaflets on a sect called Gnosis, various notes and drawings, and a marriage form from Peru – the same country where his mobile phone would be.

says father

Father also gave for lack of money. For fear of the worst, they collected all the documents they found and filed a complaint with the Court of Registration No. 1 in Elche, in the province where they reside. The authorities then began investigating both the disappearance of the young woman and the apocalyptic sect, to the name of their alleged guru, Felix Steven Manrique, 34, whose "divine" mission was to choose seven women and repopulate the world.

Already this Thursday, after the girl was saved, but still without having had the opportunity to be with her and understand how she is emotionally, Alberto Aguilar reiterated that "Patricia was a victim of a psychological abduction ".

You will have been recruited via social networks. "He looked for an esoteric page to tell a dream, when he was 16, and Manrique answered him," said his father, starting what he defines as "brainwashing." It is also the young woman who, a few months after the escape, confirmed to the parents to be with the guru – who also presents himself as Prince Gurdjieff – but emphasizing the fact that He started from free will. This has never prompted the family to ask and appeal to the highest Spanish and Peruvian authorities to ask for help.

Relentlessly in their application, the parents also relied on the valuable help of the SOS Disappeared Association. Other reports began to reach them, with more victims and even testimonies, saying that Manrique had sex slaves. When last July, Patricia agreed to speak live for a Spanish TV show (though she refused to talk to her parents, who were in the studio), she justified herself in saying that she was gone because she had a bad relationship with her parents. He was fine, he had the guarantee, and he did not want to go back to Spain, even to work at the time in an NGO called Acoracom. The parents doubted. They denied that there was a bad relationship and then they proved that the supposed NGO housed an abandoned building. More They discovered that his daughter was still with Manrique, in a circle that included two other young women and four grandchildren.

Alberto Aguilar returned to Lima to spread what he knew, to multiply in interviews and official contacts. He recalls the "Confidential" who got the embassy to contact his daughter, to call to regularize the situation. Exhausted the time granted in tourist, the young woman remained in the country without visa, thus illegal.

The next step was to give a search warrant to the Peruvian police, Alberto Aguilar returning to Spain, following the trail of other presumed victims, talking to their relatives in search of the l '. information that would allow them to rebuild their footsteps and reach their daughter's place.

The siege is tight

An important fact came to the rescue in March of this year. Aguilar was seen at the airport of Santiago de Chile with Manrique. The passengers who recognized her photographed the couple and the crew members testified that the young woman appeared to be "drugged" and that the control of the man who accompanied her was obvious, and she did not leave her alone.

According to the "El Confidencial", the police departed on the ground and about two weeks ago she mounted a vast operation to locate the leader of Gnosis, which he finally discovered in a house campaign with three other women, none of them Patricia. Manrique was arrested and will be investigated for human trafficking and ill-treatment, based on the testimonies collected and the accusations of various family members.

The young Spanish woman was found 45 minutes from Peru. in an area frequented by drug traffickers and with five dependent children – so-called all the children of Manrique. Police suspect that the leader of the sect was aware of the police operation and was ready to flee at any time. About Patricia, she lived in conditions "subhuman", denounced his father, who no longer wants to return to Spain with his daughter, although it is not known if it is the Patricia's desire. For now, the girl has been taken to Lima and there is concern that the situation of the baby, born in Peru but unregistered, is delaying her return home.

Known to the Peruvian authorities

Felix Steven Manrique, who promised the young women who contacted them to change their lives, in exchange for having sex with him, was an old acquaintance of the Peruvian authorities .

According to El País, a cousin of Patricia Aguilar, the case was the subject of an investigation due to the existence of other missing persons and several women denouncing him "for failing to ensure the education of children, domestic violence and sexual abuse."

Legally, the difficulty of accusing it results from engaging with older women, who recognize that the involvement with Manrique was consensual. But there is one issue to consider, says Mate Rojas, SOS Disappeared lawyer, as the alleged use of substances that deprived women of full control of their will, in addition – in the case of Patricia – there are several indications that "give up her house and even steal money from her parents."

The Manrique course is also very broad, with dozens of profiles designed to appeal to young women.

Founded in Colombia in the 1950s, Gnosis claims to practice "religion-wisdom from the earliest times of humanity, the metaphysical and occult system of religions, only accessible to the initiated." It has satanic contours and defends that its members are enlightened beings, who "do not fear death, knowing that it is a simple passage to obtain eternal salvation."

Apparently, Manrique, as leader of the sect in Peru, was more distant, considering himself the "reincarnation of God", which gave him the power to subjugate women, giving them spiritual protection.

At the "Notiamerica", a former follower recounts her experience, anonymously. . He described Manrique as "a clever, intelligent, intelligent and egocentric man," who used this "lip" to approach people and manipulate them. The conviction with which he expressed his ideas made the situation dangerous, he explained, which led him to want to escape his influence, even if it had long lived his threats. "I owed him respect, submission and obedience," he told me, "and he has imposed very strict rules of dress and conduct," he said.The woman left the sect in 2017 and only now she says that she has learned to control the feeling of fear with which she has lived.