Peru

4 profiled groups with documented operations in Peru — 2 Extreme-band, 0 High-band, 2 Moderate or below. Presence here describes documented operations, not a judgement about Peru or its communities; many listed groups also operate elsewhere.

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New Religious Movement

Antares de la Luz (Ramon Castillo Gaete doomsday sect)

Antares de la Luz was the religious identity adopted by Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, leader of a 12-member Chilean doomsday sect active from around 2009 to 2013 that relocated repeatedly through the Valparaiso region before settling near Colliguay/Mantagua. Believing himself God and expecting the world to end on 21 December 2012, Castillo declared the newborn son of member Natalia Guerra -- his own child -- to be the Antichrist, and in November 2012 the group bound the two-day-old infant, gagged him, and burned him alive. Castillo fled to Peru and hanged himself in Cusco in May 2013 before facing trial. Chilean courts subsequently convicted Guerra of parricide and Pablo Undurraga of qualified homicide (five years' effective imprisonment each, per Chilean press reporting), with five further members convicted as accomplices (three years each); several other members were found not criminally responsible by reason of insanity. Guerra was a fugitive for two years before her 2019 capture and 2021 conditional release. The case was the subject of a 2024 Netflix documentary.

Christian

Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) / Sodalit Movement (Luis Fernando Figari)

Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) was a Catholic Society of Apostolic Life founded in Lima, Peru in 1971 by Luis Fernando Figari. It expanded across Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the United States, and Italy through the 1980s–2010s. The 2015 Pedro Salinas + Paola Ugaz book *Mitad Monjes, Mitad Soldados* ('Half Monks, Half Soldiers') surfaced decades of sexual, psychological, and physical abuse by Figari and senior leaders. Figari was suspended in 2017 and expelled in 2024. In **August 2024 Pope Francis suppressed (formally dissolved) the entire society** — an exceptionally rare canonical action. The current entry covers the SCV through its dissolution and the Sodalit Movement adjacent lay groups (Christian Life Movement, Marian Community of Reconciliation) that the same papal decree restructured.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Ayahuasca retreat high-control facilitator circles

Umbrella entry for the diverse set of Western-facing ayahuasca retreat facilitator circles (often Peru, Costa Rica, USA) that exhibit high-control patterns. Distinct from the established Brazilian Santo Daime / UDV churches.

Other

Bolivian / Andean curanderismo high-control variants (umbrella)

Umbrella entry for the smaller documented high-control variants of Bolivian and Peruvian Andean curanderismo — specific living-yatiri (Aymara) and paqo (Quechua) figures whose lineages have produced documented financial-extraction, severance, and unsafe psychedelic practice (mishandled ayahuasca, San Pedro / huachuma). Distinct from mainstream low-control Andean indigenous religious tradition.

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Complete list of 4 group profiles