Cult in Argentina Accused of Child Abuse, Prostitution

A Canadian woman and a Spanish man were the leaders of a cult whose members are accused of abusing children and operating a prostitution ring in Argentina, police said Sunday.

Canadian Susana Clara Borowick, 33, and Rafael Martinez Gonzalez, 39, a Spaniard, were identified as leaders of the 17 adults and more than 140 children detained in a series of raids on the Family last Wednesday.

Federal Judge Roberto Marquevich, who ordered the raids after former cult members said the group engaged in physical and sexual abuse of children, incest and prostitution, was expected to begin questioning the adults today.

Marquevich told a broadcast station Sunday that prosecutors will try to prove the existence of a “prostitution network led by cult leaders.”

The judge said he still did not know whether hundreds of videocassettes, computer diskettes, books and pamphlets confiscated in the raids had been found to contain pornographic material.

Twelve of the 17 adults have been formally accused of conspiracy to kidnap and conceal children. Another 13 adults arrested in last week’s raids on Buenos Aires area homes were released.

Hafez Zeine, the cult’s Argentine attorney, said the Family has been the target of similar probes, but has never been found guilty of wrongdoing.

Zeine described the Family as “a missionary community that lives a very austere life, maintains clean and orderly homes and provides its children, most of whom live with their parents, with great affection and protection.”

All of the children are being held at state institutions where they were undergoing medical tests to determine whether they have suffered physical or sexual abuse. The youngest children have been kept with their mothers.

The Family is an offshoot of a cult called the Children of God, which was founded in Huntington Beach, Calif., in the 1960s. It has followers in several Western countries and first came to Argentina in the early 1970s.