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From: Stig Agermose <stig.agermose@get2net.dk>
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1999 06:55:09 +0200 (MET DST)
Fwd Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 03:04:21 -0400
Subject: At Least 100 Members Of UFO Cult Missing In

Source: Reuters via Wired News,

http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/20638.htm

Links are preceded by an asterisk.

Stig

***

UFO Cult Disappears in Colombia

Reuters

5:00 p.m.  8.Jul.99.PDT

**

At least 100 members of a religious cult were missing in
northern Colombia after they went to rendezvous with a UFO they
believed would save them from "the end of the world," relatives
said on Thursday.

"My daughter told me she had to leave because a cataclysm was
going to occur, and that she had to go to a high place to meet
extraterrestrials who would save them from the end of the
world," said Andrea de Echenique, whose daughter, Maria
Bernarda, is among the missing.

The followers of the so-called Stella Maris Church, which
describes itself as a gnostic organization, headed out to the
Sierra Nevada mountains in two groups on Friday and over the
weekend.

A police spokesman in the Caribbean resort of Cartagena, where
most of the cult members lived, said they had received reports
that the group had disappeared.

Up until now, there had been no known reports of doomsday cults
operating in Colombia. But in 1978, South America was the scene
of the worst mass suicide ever when more than 900 American
followers of the People's Temple killed themselves in Jonestown,
Guyana.

Cartagena police said, however, that no search operation had
been mounted since there was no indication that the Stella Maris
cult was planning mass suicide, or that any of the members had
been forced to go along against their will.

"The leader of the group told them the world was going to end in
August and that they had to go to the Sierra Nevada to meet some
aliens," said Pedro Perez. Four of his relatives are missing
with the other cult members.

Leaders of a gnostic group in Bogota said it did not have any
links with the Stella Maris group but had heard reports of its
beliefs.

"People had told us that certain practices of the Stella Maris
group were fanatical and dogmatic.... Over the last two years
they had been talking about a meeting with UFOs," said Wilson
Martinez, a gnostic "archbishop" in Bogota.

Martinez said gnostics believe in the spiritual but not the
historical existence of Christ and looked to "free their souls
with knowledge."

Family members have accused Rogelio Perea, self-styled head of
the Stella Maris cult, of swindling his followers out of their
homes, property, and money. They also say he forced members to
sever ties with their families.

"The two leaders told my daughter Liliana that she was God's
chosen one and made her change her name to Stella Maris to
brainwash her. She was convinced she was going to make contact
with flying saucers," said Mariela Tovar.

But others close to the Stella Maris group believe its 100 or so
members have simply gone on a routine spiritual retreat and
accuse relatives and the media of exaggerating the story.


[See also: *Aliens Out to Get Us]

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