An Argentine evangelical pastor who claimed God had anointed his semen died in custody on May 13, 2026. Isaías Nelson Hurtado, founder of a destructive sect in Mar del Plata (a coastal city about 400 km southeast of Buenos Aires), was serving a 24-and-a-half-year sentence for aggravated sexual abuse and human trafficking. He died of infectious endocarditis (an infection of the heart valves) in a room at the Interzonal Hospital of Ezeiza (near Buenos Aires) — less than ten years into a sentence that ran to 2044.
Federal Oral Tribunal No. 1 of Mar del Plata convicted him unanimously in December 2019. In a 200-page ruling, the judges classified his organization as a “destructive sect” under the definition adopted at the 1985 Wingspread Congress: a totalitarian movement that uses coercive persuasion to generate total dependence on its leader.
The mechanism of abuse was a precise theological claim. A victim testified before the federal tribunal in Mar del Plata: “He said his semen was anointed by God, that his descendants were therefore blessed, and that the authority God had given him was transmitted through the sexual act — that is why he did not sleep with just anyone, only with those God revealed to him.” The court held that any apparent consent was legally void. The victims had been systematically stripped of their autonomous judgment. Refusing Hurtado meant refusing God.
AN APOSTLE FROM A CAVE
Hurtado was Chilean by birth. He settled in Mar del Plata and founded the Ministerio Apostólico y Profético Monte Sión around 2007. His authority rested on a personal revelation: forty days of fasting in a cave, culminating in a divine vision. He went by “The Apostle,” “The Anointed of God,” and “The Father of Nations.” His temple sat at O’Higgins 333 in the San Carlos neighbourhood — next door to his own house. He also ran FM Sión, a local radio station that served as his recruitment pipeline.
Early meetings were warm and family-like. After about a month, Hurtado held a private interview with each new member — framed as a privilege. He extracted their deepest traumas, debts, abuse histories, and family conflicts. That information became the instrument of control.
THE FAITHFUL DOGS
The coercion was methodical. Members could not leave services before the end — everyone had to queue to greet Hurtado personally. Permission was required for everything: going to the beach, playing football. Many handed over their credit cards and full salaries. Several worked without pay at a bakery on Vélez Sarsfield street, whose revenues went to Hurtado alone. That point anchored the human trafficking convictions.
Hurtado cut members off from their families. “God told me your husband doesn’t love you” is the textbook example documented at trial. Former members were publicly declared “possessed by evil spirits.” His inner circle — the ones he called his perros fieles, or faithful dogs — surveilled the congregation and physically beat at least one person who tried to leave. From his pretrial detention cell at Ezeiza, he threatened multiple followers: “The one who betrays me, I’ll kill them.”
SENTENCE AND DEATH
Hurtado was arrested in July 2016. Former members had come forward. Federal Prosecutor General Juan Manuel Pettigiani led the prosecution before judges Roberto Falcone, Mario Portela, and Alfredo Ruiz Paz. The verdict came on December 23, 2019: 24 years and 6 months in prison. The charges: aggravated sexual abuse with penetration — compounded by his status as a religious minister — human trafficking for servitude involving twenty victims, two of them minors, and criminal coercion. His partner Patricia Padilla received ten years as a necessary participant in the trafficking scheme. The Federal Court of Cassation later confirmed the conviction.
At sentencing, Hurtado told the court: “I am innocent of the crimes, but guilty of my errors.”
The court also ordered the confiscation of the temple, vehicles, radio equipment, and bank accounts — all directed to victim reparations.
On May 13, 2026, Hurtado died of infectious endocarditis at the Interzonal Hospital of Ezeiza. He leaves behind one child whose paternity was confirmed by DNA testing — a child born to one of his victims.
[…] The term arrangee miracles has been documented in Nigerian Pentecostal circles for years. The practice involves recruiting agents — often people in precarious circumstances — to feign illness, blindness, or physical disability. The pastor then “heals” them publicly before a witnessing congregation. Donations follow. […]