A cult took control of my workplace
by Juan Pablo Proal
May 4, 2012
In memory of Proceso reporter Regina Martínez: May her murder not be in vain.
MEXICO CITY - The very dangerous Scientology cult, which specializes in psychological manipulation, has infiltrated the exclusive Chapultepec Golf Club. The organization has insinuated itself deeply into the bowels of the business while its members were unaware of what was happening.
Vicente Villa San Martín is the mastermind who orchestrated the takeover of the Chapultepec Golf Club by Dianetics. He is an active member of the Scientology cult and is now general manager of the private association that owns the club. He also holds the administrative reins of the club's social recreation center.
Before going into more detail, it is vital to understand the magnitude of the danger that I am warning about in this article. Scientology is a cult founded in 1952 by American science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. It uses the worst social manipulation strategies to gain more and more power. In France, it was fined 600,000 euros for fraud. In Russia, the Religious Council of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District banned the group's materials because they were ruled extremist. The German government has called Scientology "very dangerous and authoritarian." There is an abundance of books, documentaries, and investigative reports from around the world about the violations of the law committed by this radical group.
In Mexico, there are documented cases of rape of minors, human trafficking, worker exploitation, family separation and persecution of dissidents (Proceso 1846). What is most alarming is that, despite its record, the cult has for the second time filed an application with the Secretariat of the Interior to become registered as a religion.
The Chapultepec Golf Club is the most powerful and oldest golf club in Mexico. It is a corporation controlled by 650 members. It covers 70 acres and has an 18-hole golf course, as well as facilities for tennis, squash, gymnastics, and swimming. On weekdays, the price of a single game for guests of members is 1,650 pesos (Explorando México magazine). More importantly, the club's shareholders are the most powerful businesspeople in the country; they mingle together there, talk business, and make decisions that affect the rest of society.
The members are so busy thinking about their big investments that they rarely pay attention to the administrative management of the club. But the employees do resent that their workplace has been transformed into a fortress for the ideology of L. Ron Hubbard (which is based, among many other superstitions, on an extraterrestrial conspiracy theory).
Rosa Laura Espinoza Velázquez, the club's former receptionist, was fired for opposing the cult's infiltration. She called me to denounce the prison that her workplace had become. Her voice was joined by those of Sigifredo García Durán, the current head of security, and a group of employees who, fearing they could lose jobs, gave their testimony on condition of anonymity.
According to the employees, Vicente Villa San Martín succeeded in getting the entire administrative structure (which is under his control) converted to the cult. Furthermore, he obliges all other employees to attend courses given by the cult, a way to indoctrinate secular persons into its religion.
Money to pay for these very expensive courses (former cult members have reported spending more than half a million pesos for workshops) is diverted by Villa San Martín from the funds of members into the coffers of Scientology. In other words, employees don't pay a cent; it is the shareholders who pay. Moreover, Gerardo Villa, the manager's brother, is the provider of the teaching materials and he is the person who contacts the instructors.
Employees are forced to put aside their routine work and go to clubhouse 11, where cult members impart their doctrine. Vicente Villa has also hired cult members to audit employees (auditing is confession with a lie detector); this allows the manager to anticipate possible treason and maintain complete control over employees. He also ordered the purchase of video cameras to record everything that goes on within the club. The club's security chief knows there have been cases of extortion using video recordings obtained with this electronic equipment.
What is happening at the Chapultepec Golf Club is not an isolated case inside a private company. Scientology infiltrated the public education system by distributing textbooks in the state of Puebla (Proceso 1822). It also managed to sneak in its ideology through courses given to personnel of the National Lottery and of the Federal Administration of Educational Services (Proceso 1822).
Scientology uses front organizations to garner sympathizers. Examples of front groups are: the Entiende Más Logra Más association ["Understand More, Achieve More"], WISE, Narconon, the Latin America Way to Happiness Foundation, and Effective Business Solutions.
The cult uses its leaders to control companies, associations and government structures. This is why the information the employees of the Chapultepec Golf Club are reporting is particularly important. This case also illustrates how radical groups and fanatics from various religious groups apply their control techniques in public entities, in schools, and in any type of company.
The Secretariat of the Interior is currently studying whether to approve the registration of Scientology as a religion. For the good of the country, the government must not only reject this application, but investigate all allegations and complaints that former members have made public, and punish those responsible. Otherwise, the federal government would be sending an appalling message: we approve and encourage any religion that enslaves a Mexican citizen.
P.S. Invitation: This Saturday, May 5, at 7:30 P.M. at the Angel of Independence monument, a protest will be held for the journalists who have been assassinated during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón.
by Juan Pablo Proal
May 4, 2012
In memory of Proceso reporter Regina Martínez: May her murder not be in vain.
MEXICO CITY - The very dangerous Scientology cult, which specializes in psychological manipulation, has infiltrated the exclusive Chapultepec Golf Club. The organization has insinuated itself deeply into the bowels of the business while its members were unaware of what was happening.
Vicente Villa San Martín is the mastermind who orchestrated the takeover of the Chapultepec Golf Club by Dianetics. He is an active member of the Scientology cult and is now general manager of the private association that owns the club. He also holds the administrative reins of the club's social recreation center.
Before going into more detail, it is vital to understand the magnitude of the danger that I am warning about in this article. Scientology is a cult founded in 1952 by American science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. It uses the worst social manipulation strategies to gain more and more power. In France, it was fined 600,000 euros for fraud. In Russia, the Religious Council of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District banned the group's materials because they were ruled extremist. The German government has called Scientology "very dangerous and authoritarian." There is an abundance of books, documentaries, and investigative reports from around the world about the violations of the law committed by this radical group.
In Mexico, there are documented cases of rape of minors, human trafficking, worker exploitation, family separation and persecution of dissidents (Proceso 1846). What is most alarming is that, despite its record, the cult has for the second time filed an application with the Secretariat of the Interior to become registered as a religion.
The Chapultepec Golf Club is the most powerful and oldest golf club in Mexico. It is a corporation controlled by 650 members. It covers 70 acres and has an 18-hole golf course, as well as facilities for tennis, squash, gymnastics, and swimming. On weekdays, the price of a single game for guests of members is 1,650 pesos (Explorando México magazine). More importantly, the club's shareholders are the most powerful businesspeople in the country; they mingle together there, talk business, and make decisions that affect the rest of society.
The members are so busy thinking about their big investments that they rarely pay attention to the administrative management of the club. But the employees do resent that their workplace has been transformed into a fortress for the ideology of L. Ron Hubbard (which is based, among many other superstitions, on an extraterrestrial conspiracy theory).
Rosa Laura Espinoza Velázquez, the club's former receptionist, was fired for opposing the cult's infiltration. She called me to denounce the prison that her workplace had become. Her voice was joined by those of Sigifredo García Durán, the current head of security, and a group of employees who, fearing they could lose jobs, gave their testimony on condition of anonymity.
According to the employees, Vicente Villa San Martín succeeded in getting the entire administrative structure (which is under his control) converted to the cult. Furthermore, he obliges all other employees to attend courses given by the cult, a way to indoctrinate secular persons into its religion.
Money to pay for these very expensive courses (former cult members have reported spending more than half a million pesos for workshops) is diverted by Villa San Martín from the funds of members into the coffers of Scientology. In other words, employees don't pay a cent; it is the shareholders who pay. Moreover, Gerardo Villa, the manager's brother, is the provider of the teaching materials and he is the person who contacts the instructors.
Employees are forced to put aside their routine work and go to clubhouse 11, where cult members impart their doctrine. Vicente Villa has also hired cult members to audit employees (auditing is confession with a lie detector); this allows the manager to anticipate possible treason and maintain complete control over employees. He also ordered the purchase of video cameras to record everything that goes on within the club. The club's security chief knows there have been cases of extortion using video recordings obtained with this electronic equipment.
What is happening at the Chapultepec Golf Club is not an isolated case inside a private company. Scientology infiltrated the public education system by distributing textbooks in the state of Puebla (Proceso 1822). It also managed to sneak in its ideology through courses given to personnel of the National Lottery and of the Federal Administration of Educational Services (Proceso 1822).
Scientology uses front organizations to garner sympathizers. Examples of front groups are: the Entiende Más Logra Más association ["Understand More, Achieve More"], WISE, Narconon, the Latin America Way to Happiness Foundation, and Effective Business Solutions.
The cult uses its leaders to control companies, associations and government structures. This is why the information the employees of the Chapultepec Golf Club are reporting is particularly important. This case also illustrates how radical groups and fanatics from various religious groups apply their control techniques in public entities, in schools, and in any type of company.
The Secretariat of the Interior is currently studying whether to approve the registration of Scientology as a religion. For the good of the country, the government must not only reject this application, but investigate all allegations and complaints that former members have made public, and punish those responsible. Otherwise, the federal government would be sending an appalling message: we approve and encourage any religion that enslaves a Mexican citizen.
P.S. Invitation: This Saturday, May 5, at 7:30 P.M. at the Angel of Independence monument, a protest will be held for the journalists who have been assassinated during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón.
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